[LAD] [OT] vector drawing software

[Fons Adriaensen]

On Tue, Jul 29, 2008 at 01:43:00PM -0600, Thomas Vecchione wrote:

> I'll be honest in that I personally find QCad to be invaluable for 2D
> drafting.  I am not sure exactly how you are planning on using the vector
> drawing program is part of the problem.  In the past I have also used
> Inkscape for web design, and OpenOffice Draw for some things as well.  I,
> like others, am curious how QCad and Inkscape fail these basic requirements
> for you?

Thanks to all who responded. A short report of my adventures
in CAD land:

* Inkscape. After two hours of trying I still can't draw a simple
  rectangle. It gets filled (in blue) and all attempts to change
  that have failed.

* Qcad. Some very nice and unique features. Several problems:
  - It doesn't seem to use anything but 'plotter fonts' (i.e.
  just lines),
  - It doesn't seem to have arrows on lines
  - It doesn't seem to have a concept of a 'path', I've not
  been able to create e.g, a series of connected lines, move
  a point and keep the lines connected,
  - Printing to PS works, but the layout in the print preview
  doesn't correspond to the output. No EPS, so converting to
  PDF produces a full page and not a figure that can be inserted
  into a pdflatex document.
  
* Xfig crashed within five minutes.  
* Xcircuit segfaulted within three minutes.  

The others I have still to try.

Ciao,

-- 
FA

Laboratorio di Acustica ed Elettroacustica
Parma, Italia

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