Most Used / Most Important Design Software

SolidWorks
Keyshot
Illustrator/InDesign interchangeably

Love that MM included the Snipping Tool, I use the hell out of that as well. When combined with cut-and-paste into Outlook its probably the most productive software I use.

For project management - especially for graphic design stuff we have been using Basecamp, which is a browser-based repository of all communication/images. So helpful and blows away traditional ‘email’ thread-based management of products.