What are some of your favourite programs/tools that help get the job done

[robert.1.hall72202]

What are some of your favorite programs/tools (not cad) that help you perform
your daily job tasks????

For example......I love the fact the XP toolbar can contain a folder link
to my Acad drawings. What else can I put on the toolbars??

I also currently use pdf995 to make quick and painless PDF files.

Not sure how to use Microsoft clipboard manager, that thing scares me.

Any thoughts?? Any freeware?

[Wanderer]

What are some of your favorite programs/tools (not cad) that help you perform
your daily job tasks????

For example......I love the fact the XP toolbar can contain a folder link
to my Acad drawings. What else can I put on the toolbars??

Any thoughts?? Any freeware?

I like the folder links on the taskbar in xp. I also like windows power toys like Tweak UI.

Looking for freeware? Go to nonags.com, they have just about every type of program you'd ever need, and they have a ranking system to tell you which are the best.

[Glenn Pope]

There are a couple of tools that I like to use for accessing programs and keeping my desktop clean of icons.

Objectdock by Stardock

ObjectDock is a program that allows you to have a nice animated launchbar/taskbar on your screen that reacts to your mouse when you mouse over it. In short, it's a task bar and program launcher that does it with style.

There are two versions, free and pay. I use the free one.

The second one is KK Menu. It can be used in conjunction with Objectdock or with any shortcut icon. I use it in my quick launch toolbar in win2k. To work with windows 2000 you will need the gdiplus.dll file. You can download it here dll-files.com.

Also you can go to Wincustomize.com to get really nice icons for objectdock. Here is a couple of nice ones for AutoCAD.

[michael.12445]

1. Novell NetWare - as I posted in another forum, our server has been up continuously now for 405 days. It just doesn't break.
2. Apache web server - if running under Linux, set it and forget it.
3. Cyrus IMAP mail server - ditto, although the setup is challenging.
4. Hylafax fax server - receives faxes thru a modem, converts them to pdf, and emails the result. Slick.
5. Firefox web browser - automatic popup blocking, and fast, no-fuss browsing.
6. Thunderbird mail client - works great with our IMAP server.

BTW, items 2 through 6 are free downloads.

Michael Evans

[mjfarrell]

I like Macro Media's Flash products
even though I do not do anything
terribly 'billable' with it. The interface
is clean, powerfull and once you get your
head in it reasonably intuitive.


I also like a product called Global Mapper, this
handy application will seamlesslt open multiple
SDTS.tar compressed files without first extracting
the data from them. It wil then export any area
from within the files as DEM files or DXF, or even
contour lines which drop neatly into Land Desktop
for terrain modeling.

[christopher.zoog51272]

I use Sony Vegas for Video and Sound editing, and Discreet Combustion for compositing and visual effects, oooh and I never go a day without using my beloved photoshop

I guess those are non cad related

my other favorites that michael.12445 mentioned are firefox and thunderbird, couldn't live without them.

[Glenn Pope]

my other favorites that michael.12445 mentioned are firefox and thunderbird, couldn't live without them.

I love these programs. Though I use them for home use. I use Outlook at work.

A few more.
Open Office
Great free office suite. Able to open and save to MS Office file types. Can create PDF files.

GIMP
Similar to Photoshop, but free. Very powerful image editing and creating program.

Blender 3D
Free 3D animation program. Much like Alias wavefront Maya.

[Brian Myers]

My FREE must haves:

Karen's Replicator
Back up your programs/files to disk, server, directory... anywhere you want them! Schedule them for any time of day. I have mine copy any changed files in a certain directory on my computer to the network every 10 minutes. As a result my personal files are contained on my local machine but backed-up regularly to the server so I won't lose any work. Plus, in this office, I found our server is restarted or goes down more often than my personal computer. So Karen's Replicator has allowed me to continue working with my computer while they do maintenance to the server. Then, when the server is back up, the Replicator happily backs my files up to the server again. Best of all, it does it all in the background and uses little system resources.
http://www.karenware.com/powertools/powertools.asp

2xExplorer:
Looks and feels like Windows Explorer except it has an extra directory pane. Click and drag files; compare directories; search multiple directories; all in one program (no more multiple Windows Explorer programs running simultaneously)
http://www.simtel.net/product.downlo...s.php?id=34054

[Kroke]

I like to use Bink to put together & compress my animations.
I use Steam and play a little CS when I'm getting frustrated on a plan, eases my workflow. :P
Starskin desktop
Mozilla web and email client
Jaws PDF writer
Ad-Aware 6 (anyone use a better ad remover tool?)
Deep Exporation for viewing 3D models
StruCalc to engineer beams/floors, etc
Trillian for IM chat
ACDSee for image reduction/compression
Oh and I have this handy-dandy .dwg/.dxf installer that lets you see thumbnails of your files while browsing through Explorer. It's real nice to not have to load up a file to see what it is when you can look at the thumbnail. It's Cad Previewer. I think Andrew le Bihan from McNeel & Associates made it. He posted it to the Accurender NG a couple of years ago, but it sure is handy!

[blads]

Photoshop CS - used in conjuction with CAD, Powerpoint, etc
Acrobat 6 Pro - it beats the clones hands down
Timber Solutions - designing structural timber components, bracing & tiedowns
SpanMan - designing structural steel & timber components
FirstRate - house energy rating assessment