"Word"

[steve30]

Just wondering...

Anyone here use Microsoft Word to draw circuit (or other kinds of) diagrams?

I never have as I never liked the drawing tools in stuff such as MS Word. Much prefer either XCircuit or steveCAD (a kind of DaveCAD clone).

But I've been a student several times over the last couple of years and usage of MS Word for diagrams seems to be very common amongst students and teachers.

[peterthenovice]

I find mspaint(new win7 version) is easy to use to make diagrams

[steve30]

I find mspaint(new win7 version) is easy to use to make diagrams

Not used that, but I do have some little bitmap symbols which I used to use in the older Win98 version of paint to make cute little bitmap diagrams .

[c4757p]

Much prefer either XCircuit

Yay! I'm not the only one! 

[peterthenovice]

I prefer circuitlab.com

[free_electron]

simply use ASCII graphics. use courier font
works like a charm

[vlf3]

I have used an open-source free package for many years, called Open Office; gives much more than just Word, provides Graphic and Presentation all in one down-load; see URL:

http://www.openoffice.org/

 

[NiHaoMike]

Word and similar programs are terrible for drawing diagrams - that's not their intended purpose.

So far, I've found that Inkscape works excellent for drawing diagrams. The industry standard, of course, is Cadence (for electrical) and AutoCAD (for mechanical) but they're quite expensive.

What I would like to see is an app for a tablet or similar touchscreen device where I could draw a schematic on it like I do on paper and it would automatically translate the symbols into a nice computer-drawn schematic. (Basically, I want a schematic editor where instead of having to select parts by using a part browser or typing the symbol name, I just draw a symbol and it would try to figure out what I mean.)

[steve30]

I have used an open-source free package for many years, called Open Office; gives much more than just Word, provides Graphic and Presentation all in one down-load; see URL:

http://www.openoffice.org/

 

I tend to use OOo these days since I don't have a doze box handy any more. I definitely think its drawing facilities are better than word.

c4757p: I found XCircuit a bit difficult to get to grips with at first, but now I learnt it and got a nice selection of components handy, it is quite nice

[IanB]

I use Word a lot for drawing diagrams in technical documents. I like it because I can integrate the diagrams with the text, I can include equations, and I have a lot of control over formatting. For complex things like circuit diagrams you need something a bit more specialized, but for sketches involving straight lines, curves and annotations the Word drawing editor is quite sufficient.

[lgbeno]

Inkscape is my favorite drawing tool but of course a proper cad program is good for schematics.  I use Visio for block diagrams it's just ok but I hate how it into routes wires...

[andersm]

I have used an open-source free package for many years, called Open Office

OpenOffice is old and busted, LibreOffice is the new hotness. (LibreOffice was forked from OpenOffice when Oracle bought Sun, and is currently more actively developed.)

OmniGraffle is a great diagramming tool for Mac users. Dia is cross-platform, but it's pretty clunky to use.

[BravoV]

simply use ASCII graphics. use courier font
works like a charm

Talking about ASCII graphic, you should try AACircuit (freeware) -> http://www.tech-chat.de/aacircuit.html




Example ASCII drawing generated from this cool app, good enough for simple circuit when discussing online.  Quite impressive imo.

Code: [Select]

   .---------------------------------------------.
   |   __                                        |
   '--|  \         __                            |
 a----|   o-------|  \         __                |
   .--|__/        |   )oo-----|  \     __        |
   |            .-|__/  |     |   )o--|  \       |
   |            |       |   .-|__/    |   )o-----|-o-- x1
   |   __       |   .---'   |       .-|__/       | |
   |  |  \       \ /        |       '------------o |
 c-o--|1  o--.    X       .-o                    | |
   |  |__/   |  ./ \      | |       .--------------o
   |         |  |   '---. | |  __   '-|  \       | |
   |         |  |  __   | | '-|  \    |   )o-----o-|-- x2
   |   __    |  '-|  \  | |   |   )o--|__/         |
   '--|  \   |    |   )oo-|---|__/                 |
 b----|   o--|----|__/    |                        |
   .--|__/   |            |                        |
   |         '------------'                        |
   '-----------------------------------------------'

      ---- Master ----        ---- Slave ----


0-15V              ___0,047R
  X------o------o-|___|-o--o---------o----o-------o
         |      |       |  |         |    |       |
        ---     |       | .-.        |    |       |
  470uF ###     |       | | | 2k2    |    |       |
         | +    |       | | |        |    |       |
  X------o      '--.    | '-'       .-.   |       |
         |         |6   |7 |8    1k | |   |       |
        GND      .------------.     | |   |       |
                 |            |     '-'   |       |
                 |            |1     |  |/  BC    |
                 |            |------o--|   547   |
                 |            |      |  |>        |
                 |            |     .-.   |       |
                 |            | 220R| |   o----||-+  IRF9Z34
                 |            |     | |   |    ||->
                 |  MC34063   |     '-'   |    ||-+
                 |            |      |    |       |  BYV29     -12V6
                 |            |      '----'       o--|<-o----o--X OUT
                 |            |2                  |     |    |
                 |            |--|                C|    |    |
                 |            | GND          30uH C|    |   --- 470
                 |            |3      1nF         C|    |   ###  uF
                 |            |-------||--.       |     |    | +
                 '------------'           |      GND    |   GND
                      5|   4|             |             |
                       |    '-------------o-------------o
                       |                           ___  |
                       '-----------------------o--|___|-'
                                               |       1k0
                                              .-.
                                              | | 5k6 + 3k3
                                              | | in Serie
                                              '-'
                                               |
                                              GND

(created by AACircuit v1.28.6 beta 04/19/05 [url=http://www.tech-chat.de]www.tech-chat.de[/url])