On Thu, 18 Sep 2003, Jean-Pierre.Chretien wrote: > >>I too would like to know if there's some source of information on xfig (or > >>any other usable drawing program for Linux). I need to do some simple > >>diagrams, but can't seem to find anything that works. I'm about ready to > >>hunt out my old copy of Generic CADD, and boot DOS :-( > > man xfig > man transfig > > But what I like in xfig (in addition to its powerful import and export > capabilities and the batch processing features) is the > object oriented interface...
Which is specifically what I don't like: I want a manual with instructions, or a set of menus that have words on them - preferrably English, but I can deal with most European languages (or Japanese) far more readily than I can figure out what those stupid little pictures are supposed to mean. At least give me something I can print out on a couple of pages, and use as a cross-reference :-) I've looked at most of the packages suggested here, and other than the interface issues, they all seem to lack two important features. First, and absolutely critical to me, is that there needs to be some color translation layer between screen and paper. I can't work with anything but a black background for more than a few minutes at most. Second, I'd like to be able to draw in native units, not have to scale everything by hand to paper units. If I'm drawing house plans, I want to work in feet & inches; if I'm drawing nerve cells, I want to work in micrometers - either way, the computer should do the work of fitting the drawing to the paper. If anyone knows of a package that might do these things, I'd be happy to give it a try. Otherwise, it's back to DOS :-( Thanks, James
