(Illustration by Nancy Soulliard for ENR)

The new release of a utility for AutoCAD that displays information balloons when a tooltip pauses on objects delivers more features than before at the same old price—free.

Bubble V. 2.0 from Asuni CAD, Barcelona, Spain, can also be customized and works in 3D. Asuni claims about 7,000 people have downloaded Bubble since it appeared about 18 months ago. A quick poll found reviews range from "just clutter" to "a help tool for quality checking," to "I would hate to work without it now that I am used to it."

Robert McNeel, president of Robert McNeel & Associates, a software developer in Seattle, Wash., says his firm has a one-third interest in Asuni and gives Bubble away to attract customers. Download it at www.bubblecad.com.