How PALFINGER is elevating crane sales with real-time visualization and calculations built on Unity

Interactive crane visualization with PALFINGER: A Unity case study

PALFINGER is a global technology and mechanical engineering leader specializing in innovative crane and lifting solutions. With over 12,350 employees, 30 manufacturing sites, and a worldwide sales and service network, PALFINGER delivers cutting-edge equipment that increases efficiency and safety across industries - from construction and transport to maritime and offshore.

The company is the world market leader in loader cranes and a top manufacturer of timber and recycling cranes, hooklifts, truck-mounted forklifts, and access platforms. In Europe, PALFINGER is also a technology leader in railway systems and bridge inspection units, while PALFINGER Marine is a global leader in deck equipment and handling solutions for the maritime sector.

As PALFINGER continues its digital transformation journey, it is leveraging advanced technologies like real-time 3D simulation, cloud computing, and automation to enhance customer experiences and streamline operations across the value chain.

PALSHOW value unlocked: Impact at a glance

PALFINGER’s Unity-powered PALSHOW application has transformed how crane behavior is visualized, compared, and communicated - delivering measurable gains in accessibility, efficiency, and user experience:

• 600+ active users each month, including sales teams, distributors, and operators worldwide.
• >12,300 crane models and variations available for simulation and comparison
• One new release every three weeks, enabled by CI/CD (continuous integration and continuous delivery).
• ~700 automated tests with 90% code coverage.
• Instant access to real-time crane data via any modern web browser.
• Significant time savings: users can verify crane configurations and lifting capacities in seconds instead of minutes.
• Smooth, intuitive interface that allows users to visualize crane outreach, stability, and deflection without technical expertise.
• Easy export options (SVG or PDF) for documentation, compliance, and customer communication.

Enhanced customer engagement and sales confidence through faster, data-driven conversations.

Making complex crane data simple, visual, and accessible

PALFINGER’s sales and distributor teams needed a simpler way to showcase the intricate mechanics and lifting behavior of cranes to customers. Previously, the PALSHOW feature lived inside a large desktop application that required complex installation, local database synchronization, and frequent updates - creating barriers for users who only wanted to visualize crane movements.

To overcome these challenges, PALFINGER set out to make PALSHOW web-based, intuitive, and instantly accessible. The goal: deliver a real-time, interactive experience that runs in any modern browser, ensuring customers and sales teams can explore crane configurations quickly and confidently - without software setup or technical expertise.

Inside PALSHOW’s scalable, web-based Unity tech stack

PALFINGER built PALSHOW using Unity’s real-time 3D engine to simulate crane behavior with accuracy, speed, and visual clarity; all accessible directly inside a web browser.

The application presents cranes in a schematic side-view, allowing users to explore outreach, load capacity, stability, positioning, and deflection dynamically in real time. By integrating PALFINGER’s internal calculation framework with Unity, the development team was able to combine precise physics-based computation with intuitive visualization - turning complex mechanical data into an experience that feels fast, interactive, and easy to understand.

Unity WebGL plays a central role in bringing this experience online, delivering smooth performance without local installation or heavy downloads. New features and improvements ship continuously through automated CI/CD pipelines, meaning users always work with the latest version - a major shift from the previous desktop-based approach.

With Angular and Azure Cloud supporting deployment and platform integration, PALSHOW connects seamlessly into PALFINGER’s wider PALDESK ecosystem, alongside applications like Configure-price-quote and Job Planner.

Unity technologies used in PALSHOW:

• Unity WebGL build pipeline for browser-based rendering and deployment.
• Line & mesh renderers to visualize crane movement, reach and component geometry.
• Unity test framework + ~700 automated tests supporting CI/CD with ~90% code coverage.
• Unity tools for Azure DevOps enabling continuous integration and delivery.
• NuGet for Unity for efficient package and dependency management.
• Programmatic mesh generation as PALFINGER explores extruding 2D drawings into 3D.
• Real-time backend calculation integration for accurate physics simulation in web environments.

Unity’s flexibility has also enabled PALFINGER to iterate rapidly and scale the solution as needs evolve. The engine supports fast prototyping, allowing the software team to experiment with CAD-based workflows, 3D mesh extrusion, and new visualization modes as the product grows.

Just as importantly, Unity helps PALFINGER attract and develop talent. The accessibility of the tools, particularly for developers entering from gaming, UI, or .NET backgrounds, has made PALSHOW a platform where ideas move quickly into working features. The company regularly collaborates with students and interns to explore new proof-of-concepts and prototypes, strengthening its pipeline of skilled Unity talent.

“Working with Unity is an enjoyable experience. I can combine my knowledge of .NET and my passion for videogames and UI interaction in our product,” says Jesús González Rodríguez, Senior Software Engineer at PALFINGER.

Driving faster decisions and more confident customer conversations

PALSHOW has quickly become an essential tool across PALFINGER’s sales ecosystem, enabling internal teams, distributors, and operators to validate crane configurations in real time. Instead of navigating desktop installs or large database syncs, users can now open a browser and instantly explore how different crane models behave under load - cutting preparation time from minutes to seconds.

The application’s intuitive workflow means no specialist technical knowledge is required. A user simply selects a crane, sets a target position on the diagram, and receives immediate feedback on load capacity, reach, and stability. Complex mechanical calculations are translated into a clean visual experience that helps customers understand how a crane worth hundreds of thousands of euros will perform - long before it arrives on-site. “There is no administrator right needed anymore to install a complex program,” explained Christian Perschl, Head of Technical Software Applications at PALFINGER AG. “The web tool is running on multiple platforms and runs even perfectly on a Tesla infotainment system!”

Within the Job Planner environment, PALSHOW goes even further. Users can simulate environmental conditions, check stability, and draw obstacles to foresee potential conflicts during a lift. These insights help reduce risk, streamline planning, and ensure compliance - particularly in regions where pre-job simulation is mandatory. Export options to PDF or SVG also support documentation, reporting, and customer approvals with minimal effort.

By combining real-time 3D visualization with continuous delivery and a scalable browser-based architecture, PALSHOW has strengthened PALFINGER’s digital sales experience - accelerating conversations, improving decision confidence, and helping teams deliver clarity where complexity once stood in the way.

What’s next in PALFINGER’S expanding digital universe

PALFINGER’s software development team continues to evolve the PALSHOW experience, with Google Maps integration and top-view interactivity planned to further enhance spatial planning, crane positioning, and on-site scenario validation. By reducing cross-technology complexity and improving workflow fluidity, the next version of PALSHOW will bring even greater clarity to pre-lift planning and customer discussions.

Beyond feature evolution, PALFINGER has its sights set on a deeper 3D future. Unity plays a central role in this journey as the team explores new visualization approaches - from extruding 2D graphics into lightweight 3D meshes to experimenting with CAD-based geometry for more immersive digital representations.

These initiatives reflect PALFINGER’s ambition to make visualization not just an add-on, but a core part of how heavy equipment is configured, understood, sold, and operated.

As outlined in PALFINGER’s future strategy, the company is committed to shaping the future of lifting solutions through innovation, digitalization, and real-time data experiences - empowering customers with tools that make work safer, faster, and more predictable. PALSHOW is an early milestone in that direction, and its evolution signals a broader transformation: one where advanced simulation becomes an everyday capability, not a specialist workflow.

With Unity as a foundation, PALFINGER is building more than an application; it’s crafting a scalable digital ecosystem designed for the next generation of intelligent lifting.