Let's face it, designers and engineers can't lock themselves in their cubes anymore and resurface later with a brand new, fully functioning design.  From integrated product teams to the internet, designers everywhere utilize community driven tools to enhance their efforts.  Where do you go for inspiration?

In a completely random series of posts, I want to highlight members of the Design Software community who freely give of themselves to benefit others.  I don't want to highlight the individuals themselves (these won't be interviews), but rather highlight the accomplishments or products of the community members.  To do that, I need your help.

If you are reading this website, there is a good chance that you regularly play a more active role in your design software besides using it on a daily basis.  I'm willing to bet you are one of the vocal minority within your CAD/CAM/CAE community, be it online forums, social media, regional user groups, or international conferences.  Surely, you must be aware of individuals who routinely offer free support to other community members, who go above and beyond what is expected, and generously enhance the value of the community.  I can name a few from the CAx circles I'm active in, but I need you to point out shining stars from communities I'm not active in.

Let's get started.

I want to showcase, to spotlight, members who have created applications or extensions to your CAx tools and provide them to the community free of charge.  "Free" is the key term, but there are other qualifications.

1. Featuring community-authored applications and extensions on this blog are at the discretion of the author and Engineering.com.
2. The application or extension must be free.  Free, time-limited, trials do not qualify.  Feature-reduced applications or extensions may qualify if the free version provides significant utility to the community and is not just an enticement to buy the full version.  Ad-based applications do not qualify (but there could be ads on the author's website).  The application author may offer free and fee-based applications on their website, but only their free versions will be showcased herein.
3. The author of the application or extension cannot work for the CAD software developer or a reseller.  The authors of the featured applications must be members of the community - users of the software.
4. Other restrictions may apply.

Do you use an application, extension, macro, or code that was generated by someone in your community?  If so, comment or contact me directly and have that tool featured here on Engineering.com.