The following software titles are the current "accepted standard" for various team activities. More information is available via the links provided. Full versions of "free" programs can be obtained at the provided links; in most cases, time limited trial versions of retail ($) software can also be downloaded.
     
Cost:
PC:
MAC:
General Office Suite OpenOffice
www.openoffice.org
Includes word processor, spreadsheet, database and presentation tools; similar to and reads/writes Microsoft Office files. Can also create PDF documents.
Free
Y
Y
Publishing Scribus
www.scribus.net
Page layout and typesetting application similar to InDesign, PageMaker and QuarkXPress.
Free
Y
Y
Design 2-D CAD AutoCAD
www.autodesk.com/autocad
Included in the FIRST robot kit of parts. Standard tool for creating engineering drawings of mechanical parts.

$ (kit)
Y
N
3-D CAD Inventor
www.autodesk.com/inventor
Included in the FIRST robot kit of parts. Provides 3-D visualization of parts and assemblies.
$ (kit)
Y
N
Software Dev Robot SW LabVIEW
www.ni.com/labview
Visual development environment commonly used for data acquisition, control and automation. Designed to work with the new 2009 cRIO robot controller.
$ (kit)
Y
Y
PC SW DEV-C++
www.bloodshed.net
Freely available C/C++ compiler for developing practice/test programs to run on Windows PCs.
Free
Y
N
Media Animation 3DSMAX
www.autodesk.com/3dsmax
3-D animation and modeling program for making animation videos.
$ (kit)
Y
N
Photo/Bitmap Image Picasa
picasa.google.com
Excellent catalog/archiving functions, basic image touch-up, manipulation and effects.
Free
Y
N
IrfanView
www.irfanview.com
Lightweight but powerful viewer with basic effects and extensive conversion utilities. Can import and use some plug-ins and filters designed for Adobe Photoshop. Also good for batch processing bulk files.
Free
Y
N
GIMP
www.gimp.org
The GNU Image Manipulation Program - high quality bitmap image editor often compared to Photoshop.
Free
Y
Y
Flash Animation OpenOffice Impress
www.openoffice.org
The presentation component of OpenOffice can create animations, effects and transitions on custom sized workspaces (slides) which can then be exported as Flash files.
Free
Y
Y
Vector Image Inkscape
www.inkscape.org
Vector graphics image editor, compatible with SVG (i.e. can exchange with Adobe Illustrator)
Free
Y
Y
Website Dev TBD (see below)
     
Video Edit VirtualDubMod
sourceforge.net/projects/virtualdubmod
Highly capable and FAST video editor that can render output without re-encoding source files. Able to work in several video formats. Offers advanced features such as filtering, scripting, etc.
Free
Y
N
Video
Conversion
SUPER
www.erightsoft.net
Simplified Universal Player Encoder & Renderer; converts from just about any format to just about any format. Very fast output.
Free
Y
N
Video Transfer TBD (see below)      
DVD Author DVDStyler
dvdstyler.sourceforge.net
DVD authoring program, including menu creation.
Free
Y
N
File Transfer FileZilla
filezilla.sourceforge.net
FTP client for transferring files across networks.
Free
Y
N

 

The following software titles are under consideration as alternative choices or to fill gaps in the above list. If you have any recommendations to add, forward the info to admin@team1027.com.

     
Cost:
PC:
MAC:
Media Photo/Bitmap Image Paint.NET
www.getpaint.net
Powerful image editor designed as a free Photoshop alternative
Free
Y
N
Serif Photoplus 6
(link)
Older version of Serif PhotoPlus (current ver. 10), made available for free. Bitmap image and photo editing.
Free
Y
N
Vector Image Serif Drawplus 4
(link)
Older version of Serif DrawPlus (current ver. 8), made available for free. Vector graphic design and drawing.
Free
Y
N
Website Dev Trellian WebPage
www.trellian.com/webpage
Freeware WYSIWYG web page editor
Free
Y
N
Amaya
www.w3.org/Amaya
Standards based HTML editor developed and maintained by the WWW consortium
Free
Y
Y
Serif WebPlus 6
(link)
Older version of Serif WebPlus (current ver. 10), made available for free . Web site design and publishing .
Free
Y
N
Microsoft Expression Web
(link)
Replacement for MS FrontPage. Web site design and project manager.

$99
upgrade
Y
N
Video AVID Free DV
www.avid.com/freedv
Basic version of high-end video/audio editor
Free
Y
Y
Wax
www.debugmode.com/wax
Video compositing and special effects
Free
Y
N
AviSynth
www.avisynth.org
Script driven (i.e. no GUI) video processor (not editor). Expandable capability with large library of plug-ins and add-ons
Free
Y
N
VirtualDub
www.virtualdub.org
Fast AVI editor that does not require reencoding output.
Free
Y
N
ZS4 (aka Zwei-Stein Video Editor)
www.zs4.net
Adavnced video editing with effects
Free
Y
Y
Microsoft Windows Movie Maker 2.1
(link)
Timeline/storyboard based video editing, includes effects and transitions. Includes camera/device import tools.
Free
Y
N
Jahshaka
www.jahshaka.org
Realtime effects, editing and animation
Free
Y
Y
Video Transfer WinDV
windv.mourek.cz
Utility transfers DV files from camcorder to AVI files on PC via Firewire; can also put AVI files onto camcorder. Can also automatically split (based on recorded timestamps) or combine files during transfer.
Free
Y
N
DVIO
www.carr-engineering.com/dvio.htm
Older basic transfer utility for type 1 and 2 DV files.
Free
Y
N
Nero
www.nero.com
Video transfer available in the NeroVision component.
$80
Y
N
Scenalyzer
www.scenalyzer.com
Video transfer with automatic scene detection, also has high speed capture function.

$39
Y
N
DVD Author DVDauthor
dvdauthor.sourceforge.net
Basic tool for making menus, buttons, chapters, etc. Command line only...GUI add-ons available.
Free
Y
N

 

The following software titles were used in prior seasons are may be required when revisiting old projects.

     
Cost:
PC:
MAC:
Software Dev Robot SW PBASIC STAMP Editor
www.ifirobotics.com/first-legacy.shtml
Editor for the PBASIC language used by controllers based on the Parallax BASIC Stamp microcontroller employed in the 2001-2003 FRC competitions.
Free
Y
N
MPLAB
www.microchip.com/mplab
Source code editor and C language compiler for use in developing software to run on the robot. Used in the 2004-2008 FRC seasons.
Free
Y
N
EasyC
www.intelitek.com
Programming interface that employs a programming function "toolbox" build sections of code visually via drag and drop onto flow diagrams. Used in the 2007-2008 FRC competition; also used for programming VEX (FTC) robots.
$
Y
N



This page updated on January 13, 2009 .

admin@team1027.com