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    What's in the toolbox?

    July 1, 2009
    Transport Designs uses a lot of software and hardware, but here's a list of what the company uses almost every day: Microsoft Office 2007. Nothing special

    Transport Designs uses a lot of software and hardware, but here's a list of what the company uses almost every day:

    • Microsoft Office 2007. Nothing special here. Almost every business uses some version of this. Transport Designs does, too.

    • AutoCAD 2010. Basic design software.

    • AutoCAD Inventor. This software suite offers digital prototyping. It provides three-dimensional mechanical design, product simulation, tooling creation, and design communication — all of which combine to provide a vivid picture of what a custom trailer will look like before production ever starts.

    • Adobe LiveCycle. From the company that provides the free software that is used almost universally for reading PDF documents, Adobe Livecycle allows Transport Designs customers to fill out electronic forms that can be used to spec out trailers using radio buttons, drop-down lists, and inserting text comments. The program is a precursor to the Web-based ordering system that Transport Designs plans to make available on its Web site in the coming months. Data from the forms can be downloaded into Microsoft Excel, which is much faster and accurate than entering data from scratch.

    • Adobe Photoshop. The standard software used to edit digital photographs. Digital photographs help Transport Designs demonstrate to remote customers the progress that is being made on their order and to resolve questions.

    • Adobe Lightroom. Color is important particularly to customers who are having Transport Designs build motor homes or trailers with living quarters. Fluorescent lighting in particular can render inaccurate color in the digital photographs that the company e-mails its customers. The program also has a powerful file management system that makes it easier to find photographs. Transport Designs sets up its file system so that the library of photos can be quickly searched by customer or date.

    • DxO Optics. Trailers are confined spaces, and they often require extremely wide angle lenses to get everything in the picture. This program corrects optics faults, including the distortion that is inherent with wide-angle lenses. The software also addresses the poorer photo quality that comes from shooting at very high ISO settings to compensate for low light levels.

    • Adobe Fireworks (formerly Macromedia) is a program Transport Designs uses to call customers' attention to certain details in a photograph. “Without it, people sometimes want to know why I sent them the picture,” Mattie says.

    • Nikon D-90 digital camera with a full assortment of lenses.

    • $25,000 worth of Dell computer hardware, the result of winning Dell's Small Business Excellence Award.