Filemaker Pro. A data base program that helps my 70 year old mind remember contacts, invoices (I am self employed), and equipment lists. I have used it for the past 25 years and would be lost without it. It is actually a combination of WORD, EXCEL and Photo. (It can do calculations, spell check and carry photos)
A relatively inexpensive program that works on Mac and PC. I am up to almost 4000 entries in my Contacts data base. Names, phone numbers, pictures, dates, addresses, photos.
Example. I worked EPCM on a mineral processing plant in Southern Bolivia. We had 500 pieces of equipment on the list. Pumps, crushers, conveyors, float cells, ball mills, tanks, thickeners, filters. With FilemakerPro I had a list of all that had drop down lists. I had the equipment name, number, purchase order number, who we bought it from, what it costs, where it was located, status (Ordered, shipped, in transit, stored on site, installed). One can input pdf files so maintenance books can be easily retrieved. Data sorting is impressive.
Monthly reports can list how many pieces have been installed ie 299/500 or $25 million/$75 million. And it can be set up so that it is in a different language with a click. ie Spanish in this case.
I am sure that other major Engineering companies have their own software that does similar- but I am self employed and a one man band and can't afford a massive system.
BTW the equipment list had a large SAG mill and a ball mill. We ordered 3 drives so we had a backup. They came from Australia and the third one fell off the truck during transport 5 km from site. It had to be shipped to Chile for repair. Then the Chilean Government employees all went on strike and getting it back across the border after repair became a challenge.
I am a Mining/Civil Engineer and I have no idea what R programming software is or does.
Richard G. LaPrairie PE
LMI Engineering
Reno Nevada
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Richard LaPrairie P.E., M.ASCE
LMI Engineering L.L.C.
Reno NV
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Original Message:
Sent: 10-28-2021 03:09 AM
From: Tung Nguyen
Subject: What's the one tool you can't live without when doing your day-to-day job?
Apart from webmail (Outlook) and communication tools (MS Teams, Zoom, Slack), what is the one tool that you desperately need to do your job? Or maybe the one tool that makes you known as a "guru" in your firm?
For me, I can't do my modeling work properly without R programming software. I use it all the time for many automation tasks: data cleanup, preprocessing model inputs, result visualization, making GIS maps, building interactive dashboard, etc. Using R for my day-to-day work has been paying dividends as it has saved us and clients so much time and money.
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Tung Nguyen, PhD, Water Resources Modeler
Jacobs
Sacramento, CA
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