diagramming tools

[Robin Paulson]

hi all,
i'm looking for a tool to do diagramming - electronics, hydraulics
type diagrams. i've had a look at Dia and Kivio, but wonder if anyone
else can recommend any others? is inkscape capable of easily using
pre-defined symbol libraries (and do any exist for that software)?

cheers

[Nick Rout]

Post by Robin Paulson
hi all,
i'm looking for a tool to do diagramming - electronics, hydraulics
type diagrams. i've had a look at Dia and Kivio, but wonder if anyone
else can recommend any others? is inkscape capable of easily using
pre-defined symbol libraries (and do any exist for that software)?
cheers

I have only used dia for that, but your question got me thinking about
inkscape, so I googled and the first link was here:

http://www.learnosity.com/techblog/index.cfm/2008/2/12/Pretty-network-diagrams-and-flow-charts-with-Open-Source-software

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[Vik Olliver]

Post by Robin Paulson
hi all,
i'm looking for a tool to do diagramming - electronics, hydraulics
type diagrams. i've had a look at Dia and Kivio, but wonder if anyone
else can recommend any others? is inkscape capable of easily using
pre-defined symbol libraries (and do any exist for that software)?

I seem to have settled on dia for it. Inkscape and OpenOffice both have
support for flowcharting. Maybe that's useful?

For circuit diagrams I recommend kicad.

Vik :v)

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[Volker Kuhlmann]

Post by Vik Olliver
For circuit diagrams I recommend kicad.

eagle

$0 with certain limitations.

Volker

[Vik Olliver]

Post by Volker Kuhlmann

Post by Vik Olliver
For circuit diagrams I recommend kicad.

eagle
$0 with certain limitations.

Too many limitations, one of them being that the source is not open.

Vik :v)

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[Volker Kuhlmann]

Post by Vik Olliver
Too many limitations, one of them being that the source is not open.

Sometimes you have to bite the reality bullet and be glad it runs on
Linux for starters. What I've seen of open source schematic and PCB
layout software in the past is way short of hobby-level or any kind of
usable state, let alone in any way professional.

kicad may be one of the better ones, but from a quick play

* You can't select any element when there are more than one at the
current cursor position. Instead you move the one you don't want out of
the way, change the one you need to change, and move the others all
back, hopefully to where they used to be. Usable, but not practical.

* There is no order of library search path. If you need to replace a
useless component from a "system" library, you have to edit the system
library. Renaming the component is not always an option.

* The supplied libraries are in a big mess. Descriptions aren't in
English.

* The file dialog is so-so. Pasting a path allows to then select a file
from that path only if you're lucky. If you're not it'll add the path as
a file; to get the file you have to click yourself to death. Whether
this is kicad's problem or just the braindead gnome/gtk file dialog I
can't say.

* Not sure what the "millimeter" button is for, at least in the
schematic editor, because one still can't enter (or select) any metric
dimensions.


Guess it all depends on how much time you have spare for using toys
instead of tools. When you look at a single-seat Altium, Eagle is
downright cheap. It doesn't have as many package components though.

Volker

[Mark Foster]

I've used Dia to produce network diagrams, I found there was a bit of a
learning curve and it wasn't as intuitive as I'd have liked. But I've been
using Visio for several years now. I just don't have a license for it to
use at home.

Dia had the added advantage of being available under OS's that weren't
Windows, but I did find that when I did some work for a third party, I had
to tutor them a little on how to manipulate it....



-----Original Message-----
From: nzlug-***@linux.net.nz [mailto:nzlug-***@linux.net.nz] On
Behalf Of Robin Paulson
Sent: Friday, 21 January 2011 2:42 p.m.
To: NZLUG Mailing List
Subject: [nzlug] diagramming tools

hi all,
i'm looking for a tool to do diagramming - electronics, hydraulics type
diagrams. i've had a look at Dia and Kivio, but wonder if anyone else can
recommend any others? is inkscape capable of easily using pre-defined symbol
libraries (and do any exist for that software)?

cheers

--
robin

http://tangleball.org.nz/ - Auckland's Creative Space
http://bumblepuppy.org/blog/

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[solanth]

Post by Robin Paulson
hi all,
i'm looking for a tool to do diagramming - electronics, hydraulics
type diagrams. i've had a look at Dia and Kivio, but wonder if anyone
else can recommend any others? is inkscape capable of easily using
pre-defined symbol libraries (and do any exist for that software)?
cheers

for electonics try eeschema

Ian

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