posting schematics on the group

First make a universally readable version of your schematic. I'd use PDF Creator or some other print-to-pdf application, but you can also just make a .gif of a screenshot. Then do one of the following:

A: Post schematics to alt.binaries.schematics.electronic, and note here when you have done so. Not everyone can read them, because not everyone has access to binary newsgroups.

B: Post them to a website (yours, if you have one), and post a link here. Anyone with web access will be able to see them.

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com

Posting from Google?  See http://cfaj.freeshell.org/google/

"Applied Control Theory for Embedded Systems" came out in April.
See details at http://www.wescottdesign.com/actfes/actfes.html

Hello Tim,

And avoid JPEG (jpg) as that can make any drawing quite fuzzy and hard to read, or causes a huge filesize if the resolution is brought to the max to counter this.

Brings up the question: What file types can common newsgroup participants read? People who have a business can often read anything but that might no be true for hobbyists or people who use PCs other than their own. For example while TIFF may be an efficient format I believe some folks can't read it.

PDF is good but Acrobat is often so freaking slow.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

I'm a big fan of the persistance of ASCII Art in text-only groups via Google's Usenet Archive (formerly done by deja.com):

Andreas Weber has made it easy with his popular freeware tool:

's-ASCII-Circuit

There is one guy here who does some OUTRAGEOUS stuff with just ASCII:

--not that he is alone in this:

. . If you **are** going to post graphics files (to a binaries group or website), GIF and PNG are the least burden to download and view. As Joerg said, AVOID JPEG.

Another point some twits miss is TURN OFF THE DOT GRATICULE before capturing the graphic.

Say what? IrfanView is freeware for Windows. I can't imagine it's any more diffficult on other platforms. ...but I agree: Don't use TIFF.

...and if you open it from within your browser, the space left for the actual graphic/page is reduced. 8-(

It also means an installation hassle. GIF/PNG will mostly "just work" in most browsers. It might be easy.. but the reader might be checking posts from a public terminal etc.

For line art, .gif , and for photos, .jpg or .jpeg .

Every now and then I hear of some "acrobat reader speeder-upper" which suppresses some of the billion plug-in it loads, but I don't even know where to look.

With Linux, of course, I can view anything. ;-)

Cheers! Rich

That's what I meant. What could one easily read while on a PC away from home?

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

One way is to draw your circuit in LTSpice amd post the coresponding .asc file as text.

We can cut and paste the text into into the our own (free) copies of LTSpice (Linear Technology SwitcherCad2), re-creating your circuit diagram in an editable form.

Under Linux, the free gEDA circuit design programs also use text files to hold circuit diagram data, but relatively few people here run gEDA or Linux.

--
Bill Sloman, Nijmegen

If the borrowed computer doesn't have a browser that can render a .gif, then borrow a different computer. :-)

Cheers! Rich

I'm pretty sure gEDA runs under Windows too, or Unix, or Max OS/X. I think that covers almost everyone.

I think the problem with gEDA schematics is that they default to referencing symbols, not embedding them, and I bet most people would forget to embed them before sending out the schematic, resulting in lots of broken symbols.

--
But, by your own admission, you can\'t view what\'s not _where_ you
look.

Hello Rich,

That's a tough proposition when said computer resides in a hotel lobby or a convention center ;-)

But they'll do GIF ok, TIFF seems to be another matter.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

download and install FoxitReader

--
Your point being?

We can post text in sci.electronics.design, and the LTSpice and GEDA text files aren't usually all that big. Image files are generally binary - so we can't post them here - and quite a bit bigger, while ASCII art is pest to draw and doesn't always display that well.

What other point would I have been making?

--
Bill Sloman, Nijmegen

B is a much better option. The web is a much more reliable, more permanent, and more universally accesible solution. There are plenty of places to upload and share photos on the web.

Dave :)

I share all my schematics and CRO screen shots in GIF format, compatible with the web and browsers, and all image programs. No lossy compression, and small enough file size. I believe that PNG offers better lossless compression for this sort of stuff, but support is less widespread than GIF

Dave :)

Yes, another feature we could do without.

For what it's worth, to get rid of that behaviour under Linux with Mozilla, I just deleted /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/nppdf.so, then told Mozilla to use acroread as a helper application.

Presto, pdfs now open in their own window.

Finding out was the hard part. They only tell you how *add* features. Never how to *remove* them.

Jeroen Belleman