Tim Smith, Computeractive, Thursday 11 March 2010 at 14:46:00

A professional-quality 2D computer-aided drawing program for budding architects and designers

Registration is required to use this software. Click here to complete the form.

This is the software publishers description:

If you are an AutoCAD LT user, DoubleCAD XT will immediately feel familiar. Familiar menu, menu items, tools, icons, command line, keystrokes... even a familiar intelligent cursor.

But, maybe more importantly, you will feel welcomed improvements as well.

More Than A Free DWG Viewer There are lots of free .DWG viewers on the market such as Autodesk DWG TrueView and Design Review, Informative Graphics brava! Free DWG Viewer, and SolidWorks' eDrawings viewer.

DoubleCAD XT is more than a free .DWG viewer... it is a full-powered CAD application that lets you open a variety of file formats and, most importantly, edit those files. DoubleCAD XT even has a smaller footprint than the Autodesk products, too.

Focus on Drafting & Detailing Effective drafting and detailing are the heart of CAD productivity. DoubleCAD XT employs a large selection of line, arc, curve, and spline tools, so no matter the situation you have got the right tool for the job.

With DoubleCAD XT's snaps, modification tools, and drawing aids, you will be able to quickly draft and document your designs with outstanding flexibility.

Powerful tools such as custom brush styles, transparencies and smart dimensions also greatly enhance detailing. No need to buy a separate hatch pattern creator, DoubleCAD XT even comes with its own.

Features You have Been Waiting For DoubleCAD XT has the features you have been waiting for: transparent fills, draw order by layer, explodable viewports, bezier curves, flatten 3D to 2D views, hatch pattern editor, advanced polyline editing, automatically scale units between drawings, parametric variable palette, embed/bind image files in a drawing, input multiple unit types on-the-fly, and more.

Chris Wiles, V3.co.uk, Thursday 11 March 2010 at 11:09:00

Control a remote computer from your PC

They say theres nothing better than someone showing you how to perform a particular task. Back in the late 80s, this was how information about how to understand computers spread from person to person. Problem is that we now have to rely on books, the Internet and our own skills to teach ourselves how to complete a particular task.

However, theres a different way. You could ask someone to help you over the Internet. With fast broadband, you could easily either offer your skills to another person or find someone with particular skills to help you finish a task. For example, if you wanted to get up to speed with Microsoft Excel, you could ask for someone to show you how to use the application, or do some of your work for you, over the Internet.

How does this work? You need a specialist tool and TeamViewer is one of the best applications available. On a private home-user level, you can organise a 1:1 connection for free. This would enable you to you to help a friend for free. You install the TeamViewer software on your computer and the remote user (or yourself, if youre asking for help) simply initiates a TeamViewer module on their machine. This module does not need installation. The remote user can then control your computer, upload/download files and show you how to perform particular tasks. Of course, they could help you fix issues, too. You can stop the session and any time, too.

The best thing about TeamViewer is that, if you possess certain computer skills, you could put these to use helping other users understand their machines and charge a fee for this service. Youll need to purchase a TeamViewer commercial license to use it to make money, and these start at around $649 for a one-off Business license. This would also enable you to help more than one user, opening multiple sessions and also track and manage multiple customers.

Note that the download here is the Windows version of TeamViewer. Your users, or those requiring help, will need to download the separate TeamViewer QuickSupport module from the website.

The latest v5 is now Windows 7 compatible.

Lee Collins, V3.co.uk, Thursday 11 March 2010 at 15:19:00

Control a remote computer from your PC

They say theres nothing better than someone showing you how to perform a particular task. Back in the late 80s, this was how information about how to understand computers spread from person to person. Problem is that we now have to rely on books, the Internet and our own skills to teach ourselves how to complete a particular task.

However, theres a different way. You could ask someone to help you over the Internet. With fast broadband, you could easily either offer your skills to another person or find someone with particular skills to help you finish a task. For example, if you wanted to get up to speed with Microsoft Excel, you could ask for someone to show you how to use the application, or do some of your work for you, over the Internet.

How does this work? You need a specialist tool and TeamViewer is one of the best applications available. On a private home-user level, you can organise a 1:1 connection for free. This would enable you to you to help a friend for free. You install the TeamViewer software on your computer and the remote user (or yourself, if youre asking for help) simply initiates a TeamViewer module on their machine. This module does not need installation. The remote user can then control your computer, upload/download files and show you how to perform particular tasks. Of course, they could help you fix issues, too. You can stop the session and any time, too.

The best thing about TeamViewer is that, if you possess certain computer skills, you could put these to use helping other users understand their machines and charge a fee for this service. Youll need to purchase a TeamViewer commercial license to use it to make money, and these start at around $25/month. This would also enable you to help more than one user, opening multiple sessions and also track and manage multiple customers.

Note that this is the portable version of TeamViewer.