[gentoo-user] best circuit drawing software

[gentoo-user] best circuit drawing software

[maxim wexler]

Hi group,

I need to post some drawings of a circuit I'm working
on to an electronics group.

Nothing too elaborate, just sketches really, but with
the proper symbology.

There's 30 some odd possibilities under
/usr/portage/sci-electronics. What sorts of
experiences has the group had?

Oh, and output files will have to be visible to the
Micro$hafted too.

Maxim


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Re: [gentoo-user] best circuit drawing software

[Mike Mazur]

Hi,

On Sat, Mar 1, 2008 at 9:15 AM, maxim wexler <blissfix@yahoo.com> wrote:
>  I need to post some drawings of a circuit I'm working
>  on to an electronics group.
>
>  Nothing too elaborate, just sketches really, but with
>  the proper symbology.

You could try app-office/dia[1][2]. It has some circuit symbols.

>  Oh, and output files will have to be visible to the
>  Micro$hafted too.

Your sketches can be saved as .png or .jpg so anyone should be able to
view them.

HTH
Mike

[1] http://gentoo-portage.com/app-office/dia
[2] http://www.gnome.org/projects/dia/
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Re: [gentoo-user] best circuit drawing software

[don]

On Sat, Mar 01, 2008 at 10:17:27AM +0900, Mike Mazur wrote:
> Your sketches can be saved as .png or .jpg so anyone should be able to
> view them.

The best format for line drawings is a vector format like svg.
With a vector format the image can be scaled to any size and still
stay sharp.

A bitmap with lossless compression like png is tolerable.

Please don't use jpeg.  It uses lossy compression that is designed for
photos.  They end up fuzzy.

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Re: [gentoo-user] best circuit drawing software

[maxim wexler]

> The best format for line drawings is a vector format
> like svg.
> With a vector format the image can be scaled to any
> size and still
> stay sharp.

Can it be viewed by someone who only has Explorer?

> 
> A bitmap with lossless compression like png is
> tolerable.
> 
> Please don't use jpeg.  It uses lossy compression
> that is designed for
> photos.  They end up fuzzy.
> 
Been working with xcircuit. It saves in PS but can be
made into a jpeg which looked just as sharp as the
original.

I found this command online:

gs -dBATCH -sOutputFile=4804SR-output.jpg
-sDEVICE=jpeg 4804SR-output.ps

Which I changed to this:

gs -dBATCH -sOutputFile=4804SR-output.png
-sDEVICE=jpeg 4804SR-output.ps

The first file it created ends in .jpg, the second in
.png. But they're both the same size and look exactly
the same in the browser. When I gave it -sDEVICE=png
it replied "Unknown device: png". So maybe it just
makes jpegs but will call them whatever...


mw


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Re: [gentoo-user] best circuit drawing software

[Willie Wong]

On Sun, Mar 02, 2008 at 01:20:27PM -0800, Penguin Lover maxim wexler squawked:
> Been working with xcircuit. It saves in PS but can be
> made into a jpeg which looked just as sharp as the
> original.
> 
> I found this command online:
> 
> gs -dBATCH -sOutputFile=4804SR-output.jpg
> -sDEVICE=jpeg 4804SR-output.ps
> 
> Which I changed to this:
> 
> gs -dBATCH -sOutputFile=4804SR-output.png
> -sDEVICE=jpeg 4804SR-output.ps
> 
> The first file it created ends in .jpg, the second in
> .png. But they're both the same size and look exactly
> the same in the browser. When I gave it -sDEVICE=png
> it replied "Unknown device: png". So maybe it just
> makes jpegs but will call them whatever...

Yes, it does just that: creates a jpg file with a .png extension.

To make png files, you can try imagemagick (make sure to install it
with the gs flag)

W
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[gentoo-user] Re: best circuit drawing software

[Grant Edwards]

On 2008-03-02, maxim wexler <blissfix@yahoo.com> wrote:
>> The best format for line drawings is a vector format
>> like svg.
>> With a vector format the image can be scaled to any
>> size and still
>> stay sharp.
>
> Can it be viewed by someone who only has Explorer?
>
>> 
>> A bitmap with lossless compression like png is
>> tolerable.
>> 
>> Please don't use jpeg.  It uses lossy compression
>> that is designed for
>> photos.  They end up fuzzy.
>> 
> Been working with xcircuit. It saves in PS but can be
> made into a jpeg which looked just as sharp as the
> original.
>
> I found this command online:
>
> gs -dBATCH -sOutputFile=4804SR-output.jpg -sDEVICE=jpeg 4804SR-output.ps
>
> Which I changed to this:
>
> gs -dBATCH -sOutputFile=4804SR-output.png -sDEVICE=jpeg 4804SR-output.ps
>
> The first file it created ends in .jpg, the second in
> .png. But they're both the same size and look exactly
> the same in the browser.

Of course they're the same. All you did was change the filename
name.  The second command is still telling gs to create a jpeg
file.

> When I gave it -sDEVICE=png it replied "Unknown device: png".
> So maybe it just makes jpegs but will call them whatever...

gs doesn't care what you call files -- very few unix programs
do.

The file type is determined by the -sDEVICE= option.

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Re: [gentoo-user] best circuit drawing software

[Stroller]

On 2 Mar 2008, at 21:20, maxim wexler wrote:

>> The best format for line drawings is a vector format
>> like svg.
>> With a vector format the image can be scaled to any
>> size and still
>> stay sharp.
>
> Can it be viewed by someone who only has Explorer?

Depends on what software they have installed.

If you mean "Internet Explorer" then I have no idea whether it can be  
viewed in the browser itself, but the file can surely be downloaded.

> Been working with xcircuit. It saves in PS but can be
> made into a jpeg which looked just as sharp as the
> original.

If you zoom into that jpeg fat enough you will see pixillation. I  
don't think this will be the case with the postscript file, which is  
indeed a vector (or vectorish?) format.

You're better off converting the PS file to PDF - PDF is fairly  
postscript-based, so this is an easy conversion, and PDF supports  
vector-based drawings (as well as bitmaps).

If you zoom in on a curve on the PDF using Acrobat (or whatever) you  
should find that you never see pixillation at all - this is the joy  
of vectors. Admittedly this is a fairly moot point with a small  
schematic, but I would imagine it would be considered far more  
elegant for much larger ones or (particularly) for PCB layouts.

Stroller.

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Re: [gentoo-user] best circuit drawing software

[maxim wexler]

> > Been working with xcircuit. It saves in PS but can
> be
> > made into a jpeg which looked just as sharp as the
> > original.
> 
> If you zoom into that jpeg fat enough you will see
> pixillation. I  
> don't think this will be the case with the
> postscript file, which is  
> indeed a vector (or vectorish?) format.
> 
> You're better off converting the PS file to PDF -
> PDF is fairly  
> postscript-based, so this is an easy conversion, and
> PDF supports  
> vector-based drawings (as well as bitmaps).
> 
> If you zoom in on a curve on the PDF using Acrobat
> (or whatever) you  
> should find that you never see pixillation at all -
> this is the joy  
> of vectors. Admittedly this is a fairly moot point
> with a small  
> schematic, but I would imagine it would be
> considered far more  
> elegant for much larger ones or (particularly) for
> PCB layouts.

xcircuit should suffice for my needs. You can right
click the files in konqueror and save them to jpegs,
pngs etc. No one's going to bother zooming in on any
of them.

mw


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Re: [gentoo-user] best circuit drawing software

[Ted Ozolins]

maxim wexler wrote:
> Hi group,
> 
> I need to post some drawings of a circuit I'm working
> on to an electronics group.
> 
> Nothing too elaborate, just sketches really, but with
> the proper symbology.
> 
> There's 30 some odd possibilities under
> /usr/portage/sci-electronics. What sorts of
> experiences has the group had?
> 
> Oh, and output files will have to be visible to the
> Micro$hafted too.
> 
> Maxim
I've been using KiCad for quite some time now and works for me. Has 
several formats to export to and will generate CNC.

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Re: [gentoo-user] best circuit drawing software

[David Grant]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 176 bytes --]

Try geda

On Fri, Feb 29, 2008 at 4:15 PM, maxim wexler <blissfix@yahoo.com> wrote:


> I need to post some drawings of a circuit I'm working
> on to an electronics group.
>
>

[-- Attachment #2: Type: text/html, Size: 429 bytes --]

[gentoo-user] Re: best circuit drawing software

[Grant Edwards]

On 2008-03-01, maxim wexler <blissfix@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hi group,
>
> I need to post some drawings of a circuit I'm working
> on to an electronics group.
>
> Nothing too elaborate, just sketches really, but with
> the proper symbology.

Along with the other suggestions, there's Eagle, but it might
be a bit of overkill.

-- 
Grant

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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: best circuit drawing software

[Petric Frank]

Hello Maxim,

On Samstag, 1. März 2008, Grant Edwards wrote:
> On 2008-03-01, maxim wexler <blissfix@yahoo.com> wrote:
> > Hi group,
> >
> > I need to post some drawings of a circuit I'm working
> > on to an electronics group.
> >
> > Nothing too elaborate, just sketches really, but with
> > the proper symbology.
>
> Along with the other suggestions, there's Eagle, but it might
> be a bit of overkill.

There is gEDA (http://geda.seul.org). Maybe it solves your needs.

regards
  Petric
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