a few Visio symbols

Any port in a storm, eh?

PADS-Logic is a nice drawing program, but it doesn't output in a format that makes really crisp linework in Word. And it doesn't do stuff like color or fills or any of that pointy-hair-boss stuff.

John

...replacing bugs you know how to work around for gotchas you don't. I just had Visio 2010 installed today. It sure looks different, for no good reason. It's better than nothing, though.

Even if you don't have a model, sometimes it's easier to make a 3D model and then create a drawing, then export that to a vector editing program. 8-(

That's what I did recently for some Lemo cable-making instructions.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

"John Larkin" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

That's a shame. Our EDA software is the same way as Joerg's. I don't know if it's quite as flexible as it sounds, but drawing is just point and click, and it exports to tons of formats; I normally just have it scribble a PDF. I haven't checked if it's vector, but I would hope so. Also generates PCB drawings and 3D renderings at the same time. For that matter, you can export the PCB in pretty much any format (including a 3D STEP file, and files for a few physics FEA simulators!).

Tim

Tried PDFCreator? It can output from any Windows program, in all sorts of formats. Shows up as a printer put writes to a file. Normally you can also just clip stuff from the screen and import that to you text document. Another program is one you already have: IrfanView. Screen-Print -> Paste -> Save as JPG or whatever -> import -> done.

But yeah, color is kinda nice to have these days. My CAD has that.

If you're in the software business, you need a constant revenue stream from your customer base. So keep it buggy, and keep changing it.

John

One of my guys is really good with SolidWorks... I could post some files if anybody has the viewer. Fun to spin things around in space. He can dump parts as flat Autocad files, for sheet metal fab and such, and we can go into and out of PADS-PCB to make sure every hole and connector lines up with the packaging. Very cool.

John

I use CutePDF to convert Word to PDF. But Word won't input PDF figures. I find screen caps and jpegs to look fuzzy in block diagrams and such. Visio does really nice line work.

Irfanview is great for tweaking photographs for manuals, or for any reason. It's about 20x as fast as the Microsoft photo junk.

John

rly

just

eason.

So I'm using Visio 3.0 from 1994, I've never had any problems with it. Why should I upgrade? It just seems like a time sink, to learn some new interface.

Of course I may have to give it up soon. I'm still using word 2000 and that's no longer supported. I get all these *.docx files that I can't read.

(For CAD drawing I use EasyCAD, it came with some IBM PC back in the '80's. I did have to upgrade that to be able to print things.)

George H.

Works for Cadence and they don't even have to change anything.

Good philosophy, I use it all the time, however, gravy trains do come to their stops at some point, willingly or suddenly..

Some times that stop can be rough!

Jamie

I used Open Office (old version) to open one of those (.docx) today. Microsoft Works does it too (came with the computer.)

I've got several CAD programs. Haven't loaded any. Yet.

Google SketchUp: tried it early on, buggy, couldn't get it to do what I wanted (the artificial intelligence was maddening). People do scale stuff with it, but I never could.

I use MS Paint for quickies, exported to .PNG, and CorelDraw 6 for more serious / formal stuff. (I've got CorelDraw version 9 too but haven't bothered loading it--I don't need more features. 6 is great.)

It took some learning, but it's simply superb. It makes vectors, which CutePDF makes into wonderful vector .PDFs. It was outdated when I got it--I think I paid $10.

I'm doing some complicated mechanical stuff right now. I laid it all out in CorelDraw, to scale, then printed a full scale template, for the actual machining. That was a huge help in fitting in all the pieces. I've even done PCBs with it. $10 well spent.

-- Cheers, James Arthur

George Herold wrote on 7/12/2011 :

There is a convertor available to enable you to stay in the dark ages lol and read modern stuff.

Have you tried PNG instead? It's bitmap rather than vector, but is better for things that are not photographs. Even high-resolution conversions from vector are fairly compact and can be inserted as images in documents.

PDFcreator is great for windows users. Just remember to deselect the Yahoo! super powerbar option or whatever on the installer wizard!

It can be set to automatically create PNGs of a desired resolution. So set it up to dump PNGs in a temp folder, then "print" to it with your cad program. Then insert the image from that folder into your document.

(It also does eps, can Word display that?)

John

Open Office reads .docx files, and can save them in the old format if you like. The good thing about that is that it doesn't clobber your old installation.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

I'm not sure I would recommend EasyCAD. It=92s a bit of a clunky interface. I had to pay a few hundred dollars for the upgrade. (about ten years ago.) But it=92s a =91real=92 CAD program in is as much a= s it can import and export Autocad files (DXF and DXG) Which is how I usually send drawings to the machine shops. I was using a Autocad LT (lite) for a while, but never learned it well enough to be comfortable.

At some point in the past I tried several different 'cheap' cad programs. I hated all of them. When I put a circle in a cad drawing I want to specify the center and the radius, not the 'square' that bounds the circle. (Which is what most drawing and cheap cad programs seem to do.)

George H.

irly

en

just

OK thanks, Last time I had some problem with word 2000, I let the program contact MS for advice. The advice was to upgrade. I just forward the offending docx files to someone else in the office and they can 'fix' them for me.

George H.