2014 Get Productive with CAD and Get the Job Done. www.cadalyst.com Fortified with time- & money-saving goodness cadalystlabsreport Signs © iStockphoto.com/Russell Tate 2 www.cadalyst.com cadalyst 2014 Readers and editors share software tools and tips that are worth their weight in gold, but don’t cost a penny. “Free is a very good price!” ong-time residents of Portland, Oregon, know and General-Purpose Tools love this catchy slogan from the low-budget tele- CAD might be your primary software, but CAD managers vision commercials of Tom Peterson. A home fur- and users alike call on a variety of general-purpose soft- nishings dealer who became such an icon that Gus ware to get their jobs done, including tools to make PDFs, LVan Sant cast him in movies, Peterson lured customers to convert units, and create videos and screen captures. The his stores with every kind of freebie imaginable, from hot following free tools are among the best, according to our dogs and haircuts to wrapping paper and area rugs. readers. Nearly every American community has had its own version of Tom Peterson at one time or another, that noisy PDF Converters local retailer who tapped the marketing power of “Free!” Chris Harris recommends PDFCreator. “It offers encryp- Fast-forward to the Internet age, and freebies are more tion for security, the ability to digitally sign documents, prevalent than ever: free Wi-Fi, free e-mail accounts, free stamping, [and much more]. My favorite feature though, screensavers, free games, you name it — the options are is the ability to create JPEG, PNG, TIFF, BMP, and other endless. And nowhere are the freebies better than in the formats from a program or an existing PDF. Plus, all these CAD world, where no-cost tips and tools are plentiful — settings can be saved into profiles for easy switching.” and more often than not, surprisingly practical. “PDF995 is my favorite freebie,” reported Sharla But finding great freebies in the vast online world can Livingston. “It is the easiest PDF creator I’ve used.” The be a challenge. To help you get to the real gems that will free version displays a sponsor page in your web browser make your job easier, we asked Cadalyst readers to tell each time you run the software; upgrade for $9.95. us about the freebies they can’t live without. Those who A popular freebie that’s been around for years is submitted a favorite freebie that was selected for publica- CutePDF Writer. Use it with virtually any Windows tion were awarded a prize from the Cadalyst Store. application to create quality PDFs. Reader Marga Io said, We share each of these tools based on the recom- “I could not survive a CAD workday without this tool. It mendations we received from Cadalyst readers and con- saves paper too!” tributors. Editors have not tested each tool extensively; PDFescape is a free PDF reader, editor, form filler, we encourage you to evaluate options according to your and form designer that you use online, sidestepping any own needs. Be sure to review licensing agreements before software installation. Viranjith Tilakaratne said, “The free, downloading to ensure that you can comply with the nonregistered version is a very powerful tool, similar to terms of use. Some sites require that users provide con- Adobe Acrobat Pro.” tact or other personal information in exchange for free Go Pro. For more features at a price, trade up to the tools; others suggest a small donation. professional version of a freebie or check out products Now, let’s get to the free stuff! from companies including Adobe, Bluebeam, 2014 cadalyst www.cadalyst.com 3 cadalystlabsreport Figure 1. Using Convert, select the tab of the category you want, select the input and output units, and enter the input value. Convert shows you the conversion result in the output Figure 2. ReNamer makes life easier when you have to rename box as you type. an entire batch of files. Cadzation, Informative Graphics, Go Pro. For more features at a Can’t find a file? Ken Goldstein told and Quadrispace. price, trade up to the professional us about Everything. “This utility does version of a freebie or check out prod- one thing very, very well, which is to Unit Converters ucts from companies including Invent find files and folders by name as quickly Chris Micallef recommends ESBUnit- Better and PTC Mathcad. as you can type.” Unlike the standard Conv. “It can be installed as a Windows Windows search, this freeware tool utility or as a stand-alone program for File and Text Utilities initially displays every file and folder on removable USB drives.” For $19, the Pro Cadalyst contributing editors Paul Aubin your computer. Donations are appreci- version offers more features. and Melanie Perry use ReNamer for ated for commercial use. “I use a nifty application called Con- batch file renaming (figure 2). Select Go Pro. For more features at a vert (figure 1) that I keep on my desktop your files or folders, add and configure price, trade up to the professional and use every day,” wrote survey tech- rules for the changes, preview your version of a freebie or check out prod- nician Paul D. Werbicky, the first of a changes, then execute. “Love this prod- ucts from companies including Cadac, few readers to suggest the tool. Convert uct,” said Aubin. It is free, but dona- M-Files, and Trix Systems. is configurable to your preferences, and tions are accepted. you can create your own conversions CKRename also performs batch Imaging Tools by using a Custom tab. It runs on Win- file-renaming operations, such as Lori Dankovic likes IrfanView. “I put dows, Linux, and UNIX. sequentially renaming files, changing together training manuals, and this Cadalyst contributing editor Scott file extensions, changing case, and per- software allows me to quickly capture forming string substitutions. Guy Dow the screen image, crop the image as said, “AutoCAD, Adobe, FinePrint, and necessary, recopy the image, and paste all the other PDF drivers I’ve looked at into a document — all in a matter of always attach the DWG layout name or seconds.” It is free for noncommercial Model(1) (or something similar) to the use, and $12 for commercial use. PDF file name. With CKRename, I can “Gadwin PrintScreen is my favor- strip out all of the extraneous words in ite application for capturing screen the file names that I don’t want.” (Avail- images,” said contributing editor Mel- able from multiple sources; search for anie Perry. The freeware utility lets you “CKRename” using any online search capture just the portion of a screen that engine.) you specify — very helpful for users Melanie Perry also likes Ditto, a who have multimonitor setups. clipboard manager. “I can copy many For photo editing that’s a little more MacKenzie goes to CompliCad, a pieces of information at once, then robust than MS Paint, Perry uses Paint. source of CAD and building informa- paste them at my leisure. No flipping NET. “It supports multiple file types, tion modeling (BIM) tools, which he back and forth between programs or layers, and special effects and does calls his “favorite web site for CAD unit files. You can even do a quick-and- pretty much everything I need an image conversion.” easy search through the contents of editor to do. It does not handle huge past clips.” 4 www.cadalyst.com cadalyst 2014 cadalystlabsreport TIFF scans well, but luckily I don’t have are archived in the Cadalyst Video to use those often in my work.” Gallery. Go Pro. For more features at a price, trade up to the professional ver- LISP sion of a freebie or check out products Where there’s AutoCAD, there’s free from companies including Adobe, AutoLISP to make life easier. And if a American Systems, Etecad, and certain routine doesn’t do the trick for Hyperionics. TechSmith’s Camtasia you, undertake an Internet search to Studio is a popular choice for creating find what you need. screen recordings and the company’s What is AutoLISP, and how do you Snagit is a popular screen capture of AutoCAD tutorials, as well as the use it? Bill Fane’s free classic, “Learning program. “Circles and Lines” AutoCAD tuto- to LISP,” leads the way. While you’re rials by Lynn Allen. Both are published learning, hang out on Cadalyst’s Hot CAD Freebies by Cadalyst, just two of many free Tip Harry Discussion Forum for free Do you wish you could change Auto- tutorial series for a number of CAD information and support. CAD just a little to make it better suited software systems, including Autodesk Cadalyst’s own CAD Tips site is one to your needs? You can, of course Inventor, Civil 3D, and Map 3D; Solid- of the most extensive sources of free — and probably without opening your Works; and more. LISP code (plus some VBA code, hatch wallet. And twice a month, Cadalyst pub- patterns, and general tips for Auto- lishes a new AutoCAD video tip by Lynn CAD and other software). It is home to Tools for AutoCAD Allen. These quick and easy options thousands of tips that are searchable “Not only do we use DWGgateway,” for maximizing AutoCAD productivity by keyword, author name, file name, wrote Alan Harmon, “but I suggest it for all our consultants when the com- mon problem of not having the com- patible CAD edition occurs. We haven’t Free (and Almost Free) Tools for the iPhone upgraded our CAD systems since 2005, These tools go anywhere (itunes.apple.com, or access the App Store from your iPhone).