Diagram drawing

boxes connected with arrows

mind map

Free Body Diagram

• 
  Tree Diagram
• 
  Network Diagram
• 
  Flowchart
• 
  Venn Diagram
• 
  Existential Graph

Target Audience

Someone who has never drawn in a vector graphic, object oriented software package.

Objectives

You want to:

• Draw an organizational chart, an information flow chart, a subsystem diagram, an electrical circuit, a chemical process, a decision tree, a free body diagram, a specific type of diagram that already has a name
• Make up new symbols for a new field for example Rube Goldberg project documentation symbols
• Want to put words in boxes and connect them with arrows
• Capture brainstorming sessions (Mind mapping)

Drawing in a notebook, taking picture with cell phone and then putting this in documentation is useless. Manipulating pixels or dots in photos is a waste of time. The goal is something that looks good small, looks good big, looks good printed. This requires software that saves equations for lines rather than pixels.

You want to:

• Draw in 2D not 3D
• Quick drawing, no simulation or animation
• Draw lines, not edit pixels
• Communicate scope, icon, logo, big picture, not the detail of graphs and charts

Starting Point

• Google Draw -- requires no software installation ... just get a google ID, go to google drive and create boxes, put text in them and connect with arrows.

Free online drawing tools - Online Diagramming & Design. Flash-based. - Free online diagramming application. Flash-based. BPMN 2.0 designer.

• Inkscape -- is an open source version of adobe illustrator

Has significant learning curve Very Thorough Beginners' Guide: Playlist that goes through each individual feature and usage. Beginners' Guide: Similar to the above. Not quite as thorough. Slow paced. Boring Quick Logo Tutorial, quick tutorial for logo creation. Shows numerous tools being applied in all of 5 minutes

can mix photos and line drawing

produces SVG files that can be uploaded directly to wikicommons

• Icons specific to a type of Engineering

Standard engineering symbols Most types of engineering have standard icons. The icons are designed to encourage discussions and communicate information at a high level where participants don't necessarily know all the details. For example the symbol for a transistor hides how it was made, what type and focuses the discussion on how it is connected. A firewall symbol helps encourage discussions of zone security features without discussing how the are implemented. A distillation symbol shows where in a chemical plant distillation occurs without discussing exactly how the distillation unit is designed so the discussion can focus on material flow.

Visio by Microsoft doesn't have a "free" version, but dominates engineering.

Public SVG libraries exist that can be directly manipulated with svg-edit; is evolving rapidly, is sponsored by google and should enable access to these libraries in the future .. in the mean time collections of engineering svg objects exist on the internet and at wikicommons that can be used within inkscape

The Tango Desktoptop Project is trying to standardize all desktop gui icons .. not engineering icons.