Welcome to the WildTools corner of the PowerCADD world. Here you'll find a miniature and abbreviated copy of the WildTools manual so that you can see what the various tools and commands do.

I wrote WildTools because I draw. I have spent many years on the drawing board producing highly detailed, ink-on-mylar aircraft assembly drawings with old-style tools like flexible splines and duck-weights. I'm compulsive about the appearance of my drawings, and I've devoted many thousands of hours to producing them. Drawing to me means backaches, eye strain, long hours, and incredible tedium when you have to revise a drawing done in ink.

When I draw on a computer, I often find myself frustrated by the inability to do something that ought to be easy. These frustations were what led me to write WildTools in the first place. When I began, I wanted to put my fist through the computer screen every ten minutes or so. But when we came out with the first version of WildTools a couple of years ago, the business of drawing on a computer was dramatically easier and all of the basic frustrations were gone. You could draw pretty much anything.

Then over the next year, I continued to add to the tools and somewhere in the process something magical happened. Everyone involved in the process describes it in essentially the same terms--that somewhere in the course of that year the business of drawing on a computer crossed a threshold. Drawing on a computer started to be simply wonderful. It became fun. People routinely report productivity gains of 25, 50 and 100% over the course of a day.

I've found that most people have great difficulty visualizing what really terrific software is like. You've already been through a learning process, what you're presently using works just fine, and you certainly don't want to invest more time learning something new. Everyone has a little of that in them, but I urge you to listen to the passionate voices of the people who use this software, and you'll get an inkling of what this is all about. What WildTools brings to the table is the ability to focus your attention entirely on the drawing--and not fight with a computer.

Think about how many people you know who hate their CAD program, yet use it anyway. But listen to the voices of WildTools users, and notice how often the word 'love' appears. And when you finally make the switch to PowerCADD and WildTools, you'll understand!

Alfred Scott

If you'd like to read more about how WildTools came into being, you might enjoy reading the following articles:

CAD Malarky     Programming, WildTools and Depression     If the Software...

If you would like to see what I do with the rest of my time, please visit the Sequoia Aircraft website.