Database refresh

Sometimes we need our development servers to be refreshed with data from our production servers. We raise a request to a DB group and they take care of it for us. I was wondering if there exists a tool that would allow us to make a quick copy of data from some limited important tables (these tables would be identified by us). The tool has to refresh data from one table to another. We cant spare a day at times since the team might be trying to solve production bugs. A free tool would be preferable

Anyone know of one ?

I've worked in numerous environments where the vast majority of developers had little to no access to production data (because it was so special) so I've never needed such a tool. Most of the time such tools can be hand-coded for specific situations. What database software are you using? I'm sure there's a DBA tool that can be used but it is likely DBMS specific.

What database software are you using? I'm sure there's a DBA tool that can be used but it is likely DBMS specific.

Yes thats what I thought too. We have Sybase. I was told powerbuilder has something called data pipe line that will allow me to do something like this. I was just wondering if there was a generic tool out there. Thanks