Tools to organize data/notes/etc

[brianidaho]

I'm sure many of us are in similar situations, managing multiple projects, each with many documents, spreadsheets, cad data, etc. Add to that many notes from phone messages, internet links, daily to do lists, etc. Has anyone found any decent software tools collecting and organizing all this "stuff" and that gives some means of linking it all together in a meaningful way. And also provides a way to go back and find data after a period of time?

We do use a PDM system for our CAD data (DB Works/Solidworks), which does help. But most of our data collection and engineering analysis is done via spreadsheets. Add to that, as the engineering lead here, a portion of what I do is scheduling and tracking of other's work into and out of design, a tool that provides visualization by job would also be helpful.

I realize this is pretty vague, I hope I've done an adequate job of explianing the concern.

I've worked with this tool:

http://www.thebrain.com/

It's better than nothing, but I'm not sure it's the best thing available for engineering.

So, what works for you? Thanks.

(btw, ignore the silly green links, I don't know how they were created)

 

[tomwalz]

I keep a diary in word. Very searchable. Notes, letters, contact info, web addresses.

Works very well, comes with the software and no silly green links.

I also keep the standard, bound journal for hand written notes.

I personally don’t like silly, little, single use software packages.


Thomas J. Walz
Carbide Processors, Inc.

http://www.carbideprocessors.com

Good engineering starts with a Grainger Catalog.

 

[CoryPad]

Ignore the green links - those are site-created, advertising-based links.

 

[Clyde38]

This is quote from their site.

"JTrac is an open source and highly customizable issue-tracking web-application written in Java."

We use it. .

Take a look.

http://www.jtrac.info/

[link

http://www.linkedin.com/in/clydehancock

]

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[drawoh]

brianidaho,

Learn HTML. The language is very simple. You can write notes in it. You can port the notes from application to application and computer to computer. The language supports links to the internet.

Once you learn HTML, you can do your own public website if you want.

JHG

 

[PetieSmo]

brianidaho,

I was doing a short analysis last week & I just tried using Microsoft's OneNote 2007 for the first time. It was definitely nice for taking notes right next to my stress plots, printing information from analysis results, recording internet links and/or importing info, etc...
You can also link documents in-line with your notes. I haven't used it more than that yet, and I doubt it's a "magic bullet", but it's worth checking into.

Let us know what you find,

 

[GregLocock]

An alternative to html is to build your own wiki on a stick. I've used both, neither are perfect. The advantage of a wiki is that it has better navigation. The disadvantage is that it is not as flexible.

Cheers

Greg Locock

I rarely exceed 1.79 x 10^12 furlongs per fortnight