thanks. minutes after posting this i discovered there is a companion plugin needed for the first to work properly. sorry to take your time with this.

i loaded fredo6's "tools on surface" plugin which a coworker of mine installed on his machine, uses with no problems and recommended to me. it says it loaded but i can't find it anywhere - not on the tools menu, not on the toolbars menu, there is no toolbar i can find... nothing.

any ideas?