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What's the one tool you can't live without when doing your day-to-day job?

  • 1.  What's the one tool you can't live without when doing your day-to-day job?

    Posted 10-28-2021 08:02 AM
    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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  • 2.  RE: What's the one tool you can't live without when doing your day-to-day job?

    Posted 10-31-2021 09:25 AM

    Dear Tung, it is a very interesting topic. I imagine that the answer sometimes depends on a specific area. In my case:

    Programming: Matlab (but I noticed that several friends are encouraging me to learn Python, it is free. Several applications are being developed in this language).

    Modelling (structural): SAP2000, ETABS.

    Notes: Notepad++ (it includes options to visualize certain symbols in several programming languages, but it is a Notepad), Evernote

    References: Zotero (it is free until 200 Mb of storage. I have a subscription, and I save a lot of time and money, citing).

    Prowritingaid and Grammarly: for non-native English speakers, those are great tools.

    PDF X-Change Editor: Great tool to visualize, edit and comment PDF's

    ilovepdf: a free tool on the internet to handle PDF's (i.e. divide pages).

    Regards,
    AG



    ------------------------------
    Andres Guzman Ing., M.ASCE
    Associate Professor
    UNIVERSIDAD DEL NORTE
    Barranquilla
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: What's the one tool you can't live without when doing your day-to-day job?

    Posted 11-08-2021 07:21 AM
    Thanks for sharing Andres! 
    I also use several programs that you list (Notepad++, Zotero, PDF X-Change). How do you like Prowritingaid and Grammarly? I am considering paying for it too

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    Tung Nguyen, PhD, Water Resources Modeler
    Jacobs
    Sacramento, CA
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: What's the one tool you can't live without when doing your day-to-day job?

    Posted 11-08-2021 08:57 PM
    Dear  Tung, I use both in different ways. Grammarly is a great tool to polish the message and assess the "emotion" expressed in each communication. On the other hand, ProWritingAid is a more professional tool but too comprehensive and sometimes could be overwhelming. It is important to configure the latter, so it checks just what you want. Nevertheless, both are great tools worthy of paying.
    Regards,
    AG

    ------------------------------
    Andres Guzman Ing., M.ASCE
    Associate Professor
    UNIVERSIDAD DEL NORTE
    Barranquilla
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: What's the one tool you can't live without when doing your day-to-day job?

    Posted 12-23-2021 09:42 AM
    Hi Andres,

    Thanks for sharing! That's a very nice list but for the editing and doing mark ups on PDF's I still prefer using Bluebeam over PDF X-change. I was once a PDF X-change user and someone introduced me the power of Bluebeam! :) And for the notes, I use OneNote instead of notepad. Hope you can explore those softwares/apps! :)

    Regards,
    Marvin

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    Marvin Mangabat M.ASCE
    Structural Engineer
    San Juan City
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    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: What's the one tool you can't live without when doing your day-to-day job?