adding my own SW to the Ubuntu Unity Launcher?

[n3mmr]

How do you produce the .desktop files that Unity Launcher/Dash Lens use?

I want to add third party java libs, that do run under ubuntu, but are delivered w/o installers or anything, to the launcher. And scripts of my own for workflow runs.

I managed to do this for Room EQ Wizard, an acoustic measurement program for use with home theater stuff.
But manually, it gets rather long winded. Is there a tool like whart's in gnome-panel?

[Cheesemill]

I usually just create the .desktop files by hand and copy them into /usr/share/applications/

If you want a gui then try alacarte (apt://alacarte)