These could be tools related to equipment design, documentation, keeping track of parts, versioning, visualization, forums, and more. In other words, things that help streamline your efforts, reduce frustration, and set yourself up in a sustainable way to disseminate and use open source hardware solutions.
These could also be tools that you’ve noticed others use and that have impressed you one way or another.
When I was doing PCB design in KiCAD, setting up GitHub Actions to automatically run various checks and generate various output artifacts on each commit/PR (e.g. using KiBot GitHub action · Actions · GitHub Marketplace · GitHub) was a very helpful way to simplify development!
As a complete newcomer to this whole world of HW and SW(background in theory and analysis work), it can be quite intimidating to be introduced to some of the “necessary” software. Especially CAD software.
Onshape was a big help to me. It has a pretty good free plan, it is fully online, and is very user friendly compared to fusion365, solidworks, etc. It also has a GitHub like collaboration system.
But most importantly it has a feature library where everyone can upload their own features, which enables you implement custom build design tools.
Having developed a reasonable amount of video content over the last few years (ClipChamp, TechSmith capture), recently I’ve mostly settled on using PowerPoint slides with the “record” feature, then exporting to an MP4. A lot of my recent content has been via this process, e.g.,
In particular, I’ve also been leveraging the YouTube short format (super easy to snap and upload a video from the phone app, then share the link). E.g., Using an arbor press to press fit rods into the Jubilee tool post for the OT2 Pipette Tool. Sometimes, I’ll also create a YouTube short from a PowerPoint with the appropriate aspect ratio, such as with Autonomous 3D Printing.
Other than for YT shorts (easy to re-record), I’ve leaned towards doing voiceovers on pre-recorded videos imported into PowerPoint. This is part of the reason I like the PowerPoint record format. You’re able to redo recordings on a per-slide basis. Ideally, I’d also like an easy way to record something and then add a voiceover directly from a phone, but had trouble finding a reasonable app for it.
I’ve been trying to reduce the overhead associated with creating videos and make it easier to edit/adjust in advance. It’s also been nice to stick with a format that’s consistent with my typical conference-style presentations.