CAD / Visio Like Application Wanted

[Treeman]

I used to have Visio before MS bought the program, & I really liked its simplicity. Now I'm not a cheapskate, but $499 bucks seems a little steep for Visio!

Is there a CAD like program that works well with XP, and has the basics?

For me, it's akin to needing a publishing program like MS Publisher. The program does all you need for making flyers, brochures, etc., it's simple to learn and has some templates you can use if needed.

I want to be able to draw lines and have the measurements show while drawing.

Have some basic shapes that can be dragged & dropped, and file formats that can be used to save my drawings too, so other programs can use them.

Your recommendations are appreciated!

Treeman

[finrod]

Have you tried OpenOffice

It works quite well (Like ms office) but it's free and have an aplication very similar to visio Download it from www.openoffice.org

[Treeman]

Thanks Finrod,

I already have Office XP installed on this machine. I was looking for a stand-alone application. One that has the look and feel of a Windows User Interface.

I'll keep looking though, and thanks for your feedback!

Treeman

[jaclaz]

@treeman

Best buy in this kind of proggies is this (just my two cents):

Mayura Draw (shareware $39)

http://www.mayura.com/

Mayura Draw includes the traditional vector-drawing tools such as basic shapes, grouping and alignment, moving objects to front or back, resizing and rotating objects, and bezier curves.

Import: AI, WMF, GIF, JPEG, PNG, TIFF and BMP formats.

Export: SVG, EPS, PS, AI, PDF, WMF, EMF, GIF, JPEG, PNG, BMP and TIFF formats.

Compatibility: Windows 95, 98, Me, NT, 2000, XP.

LaTeX friendly: The EPS files generated by Mayura Draw are suitable for including in LaTeX documents.

(much easier to learn than any CAD like product, of course it has less features)

jaclaz

[Treeman]

Thanks Jaclaz,

I downloaded the trial and will check it out.

Treeman

P.S. What's Latex

[jaclaz]

@treeman

Latex is a kind of evoluted text editor, originally unixish only, with exceptional features for the writing, between others, of mathematical formulas, schemas and the like.

Have a look at it on the home page:

http://www.latex-project.org/

http://www.latex-project.org/intro.html

Now there are good windows ports, see here:

http://www.miktex.org/

jaclaz

[Treeman]

Hey, I think I found what I was looking for:

SmartDraw

Treeman

[MCT]

Just CAD 6.0

possibly another alternative its free