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Creating appealing schemas and charts

Peter Hűwe [PeterHuewe at gmx.de]


Thu, 14 Jan 2010 15:35:55 +0100

Dear TAG,

unfortunately I have to create a whole bunch of schematas, charts, diagrams, flow charts, state machines (fsm) and so on for my diploma thesis - and I was wondering if you happen to know some good tools to create such graphics.

Of course I know about dia, xfig, (open office draw), gimp, inkscape - but either the diagrams look really really old-fashioned (dia, xfig) or are rather cumbersome to create (gimp, inkscape, draw) - especially if you have to modify them afterwards.

So I'm looking for a handful of neat tools to create some appealing schematas. Unfortunately I can't provide a good example - but thinks, like colors, borders,round edges are definitely a good start :)

I have to admit that it is arguable whether some eye-candy is really necessary in a scientific paper - however adding a bit of it, really helps the reader to get the gist of the topic faster.

Thanks, Peter


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Amit Saha [amitsaha.in at gmail.com]


Fri, 15 Jan 2010 00:46:21 +0530

Hello Peter:

On Thu, Jan 14, 2010 at 8:05 PM, Peter Hüwe <PeterHuewe@gmx.de> wrote:

> Dear TAG,
>
> unfortunately I have to create a whole bunch of schematas, charts, diagrams,
> flow charts, state machines (fsm) and so on for my diploma thesis - and I was
> wondering if you happen to know some good tools to create such graphics.
>
> Of course I know about dia, xfig, (open office draw), gimp, inkscape - but
> either the diagrams look really really old-fashioned (dia, xfig) or are rather
> cumbersome to create (gimp, inkscape, draw) - especially if you have to modify
> them afterwards.
>
> So I'm looking for a handful of neat tools to create some appealing schematas.

In my limited experience with such tools and from what I have seen from my research lab supervisor and members, its usually 'xfig' for the gray scale ones and often MATLAB for the colored ones. (yes, MATLAB is proprietary). In fact, one of my lab members have been using Inkscape off late.

I hope there are better free alternatives out there!

Cheers, Amit

-- 
Journal: http://amitksaha.wordpress.com,
µ-blog: http://twitter.com/amitsaha
 
Freenode: cornucopic in #scheme, #lisp, #math,#linux, #python


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Deividson Okopnik [deivid.okop at gmail.com]


Thu, 14 Jan 2010 16:17:21 -0300

2010/1/14 Peter Hüwe <PeterHuewe@gmx.de>:

> Dear TAG,
>
> unfortunately I have to create a whole bunch of schematas, charts, diagrams,
> flow charts, state machines (fsm) and so on for my diploma thesis - and I was
> wondering if you happen to know some good tools to create such graphics.
>
> Of course I know about dia, xfig, (open office draw), gimp, inkscape - but
> either the diagrams look really really old-fashioned (dia, xfig) or are rather
> cumbersome to create (gimp, inkscape, draw) - especially if you have to modify
> them afterwards.
>
> So I'm looking for a handful of neat tools to create some appealing schematas.
> Unfortunately I can't provide a good example - but thinks, like colors,
> borders,round edges are definitely a good start :)
>

I used this once for a simple diagram I needed, and it seems to have everything you need.

http://www.gliffy.com/

> I have to admit that it is arguable whether some eye-candy is really necessary
> in a scientific paper - however adding a bit of it, really helps the reader to
> get the gist of the topic faster.
>

It sure adds to the experience of reading your paper :)


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Thomas Adam [thomas.adam22 at gmail.com]


Thu, 14 Jan 2010 19:24:57 +0000

On Thu, Jan 14, 2010 at 04:17:21PM -0300, Deividson Okopnik wrote:

> 2010/1/14 Peter H?we <PeterHuewe@gmx.de>:
> > Dear TAG,
> >
> > unfortunately I have to create a whole bunch of schematas, charts, diagrams,
> > flow charts, state machines (fsm) and so on for my diploma thesis - and I was
> > wondering if you happen to know some good tools to create such graphics.
> >
> > Of course I know about dia, xfig, (open office draw), gimp, inkscape - but
> > either the diagrams look really really old-fashioned (dia, xfig) or are rather
> > cumbersome to create (gimp, inkscape, draw) - especially if you have to modify
> > them afterwards.
> >
> > So I'm looking for a handful of neat tools to create some appealing schematas.
> > Unfortunately I can't provide a good example - but thinks, like colors,
> > borders,round edges are definitely a good start :)
> >
> 
> I used this once for a simple diagram I needed, and it seems to have
> everything you need.
> 
> http://www.gliffy.com/

Dia.

-- Thomas Adam

-- 
"It was the cruelest game I've ever played and it's played inside my head."
-- "Hush The Warmth", Gorky's Zygotic Mynci.


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Jimmy O'Regan [joregan at gmail.com]


Thu, 14 Jan 2010 19:42:04 +0000

2010/1/14 Peter Hüwe <PeterHuewe@gmx.de>:

> Dear TAG,
>
> unfortunately I have to create a whole bunch of schematas, charts, diagrams,
> flow charts, state machines (fsm) and so on for my diploma thesis - and I was
> wondering if you happen to know some good tools to create such graphics.
>

For finite state machines, Ragel (http://www.complang.org/ragel/) has a Graphviz visualisation mode. That it also generates code in several languages is a bonus :)

-- 
<Leftmost> jimregan, that's because deep inside you, you are evil.
<Leftmost> Also not-so-deep inside you.


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