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An engineers software toolbox Part 2

Milind Gupta - April 1, 2013

In my previous post I listed several engineering software tools that I use to help me do my work at Touchstone. Here are some more software tools that I use often. Most engineers at some time or other need a math package to process numbers. I have used Matlab, Scilab and Octave. Scilab is a good, extensive, free, open source tool, Octave is very handy since it uses the Matlab syntax so most Matlab scripts need very little or no modification. The nice thing about Scilab and Octave is that they are both free and open source. The software that I am currently hooked on for my Math needs is GSL-Shell. Not many people may have heard about it since it is new and does not yet have a large community. But I like it because it uses the Lua scripting language, which makes it versatile and lightning fast, almost as fast as a direct C program. I have used GSL-Shell to process circuit simulation data and found it quite easy to pick up. The Lua language itself is also in my software toolkit. Lua is extremely fast in execution (nearing execution speed of compiled C!), yet is extremely easy to learn and use. In spite of its simplicity its possible to do highly advanced programming in Lua which would make your head spin to do in C/C++. Lua runs on Android, iPhone, Windows, Linux, Mac etc., and although it is not yet well known, it is used in places like Nasa, Google and Adobe. Dia is an excellent open source software alternative to Visio. Its installation packages are available for Linux, Windows and Mac. It also allows scripting and automation by using Python for those of you who know Python programming language. I use Dia to create block diagrams, etc. Sometimes you need fancy drawings or artwork that can be used in websites or presentations. I find Inkscape a very useful tool for that. Its open source and has a large community of users. If you are good with Microsoft Paint, then you will quickly be able to create professional quality images for your presentations with Inkscape. Engineers are exposed to PDF documents nearly every day. I have long searched for a good free open source PDF editor but never found one. PDFfill is not free or open source but it is very good and not too expensive at $20. It is good for editing text, annotations and drawings in a PDF. Sometimes when reading documents in PDF format, I really want to take notes right on the PDF instead of having to maintain the PDF and notes separately. For this I find Jarnal very useful. With my tablet digitizer pen I can take notes directly on top of the PDF. Jarnal is Java software so its
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cross platform, open source and free. You can also use Jarnal without importing PDF to take notes directly, just like with Microsoft Journal. These days most of us have multiple phones, tablets, laptops, etc., and to keep the data synchronized between all can be a nightmare. A simple to use Java program called jfilesync allows me to sync up two devices with a simple push of a button. It is open source and the author is very responsive to issues. So thats my software toolbox. It helps me get the job done and keep me organized. I would love to hear from you about other software that you find useful in your daily lives.

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