drawing software recomendation

[fipp]

I have a general question here. I am a football coach and being such you end up drawing lots of plays. I am searching for a more efficient program and way to do this.

Currently I use various programs. There is a program designed for football plays but it is not great. I have also used microsoft power point.

Here are some of the needs and some of my thoughts.

- I imagine there is a way to save a group of 11 circles. That way I could then paste them on the screen and arrange them how I would like.

I would like each page to be the size of a sheet of paper, 8 1/2 x 11

I also imagine that there is a way to do the same thing for 11 Letters representing defensive players. I would like to obviously paste these and rearrange them on many different pages. I don't know if there is a library or something?

My next question is there a way to use a tablet and have the computer extrapolite for example.... I draw a straight line breaking at roughly a 45 degree angle with an arrow on the end? (The computer could reckognize that it is supposed to be 2 lines connected together at an angle etc...) I know that you can do that with a mouse but man it takes longer than I think it should.

Speaking of the end point on a line a bunch of them would have an arrow, some of them would end with a T, the T always being perpendicular to the line it is connected to. and some would end with nothing at all?

The lines would be straight connected straight or rounded?

Some of the lines would be composed of a squiggly line, then turn into a straight line connected with another straight line at an angle or rounded and ending with some type of arrow or as fore mentioned T or nothing at all?

Anny suggestions on what software to use and how would be much appreciated.

I would like to eventually insert each file into a database. That is a little ways down the road but if it makes a big difference. The Database is sql server 2005.

[LLXX]

http://www.smartdraw.com/

Or, if you're looking for something a bit more powerful,

http://www.autodesk.com/autocad

[CoffeeFiend]

http://www.smartdraw.com/

Or, if you're looking for something a bit more powerful,

http://www.autodesk.com/autocad

I think smartdraw would work nicely for odd drawing like that. But autocad would likely be my very last recommendation - it's just not suited to the task at all IMO. There's countless other better alternatives out there for his needs like visio or illustrator/photoshop, or even better - hybrid vector/bitmap apps, like ms expression designer ("acrylic"). An app with ink support isn't a bad idea either.

[nitroshift]

Adobe Pagemaker?

[mark]

A free tiny application: EVE

I don't know if EVE will fit all your criteria but it's small at 74K.

If you go for something like a CAD program, then try Turbocad as it is one of the least expensive and there are some simple 2D CAD progs for free.

DL

[LLXX]

A free tiny application: EVE

I don't know if EVE will fit all your criteria but it's small at 74K.

If you go for something like a CAD program, then try Turbocad as it is one of the least expensive and there are some simple 2D CAD progs for free.

DL

Not bad, not bad at all. File is actually ~150Kb as they packed it with EXE compressor.

[Jeremy]

Nice find.

[MGadAllah]

Or, if you're looking for something a bit more powerful,http://www.autodesk.com/autocad

But autocad would likely be my very last recommendation

But I think autocad will need a little time to learn about it, right. But in general you may try all tools mentioned here for a little while then you will find which once best for your needs, and good luck for your team

[mark]

but it's small at 74K.

File is actually ~150Kb as they packed it with EXE compressor.

oops. Appologies.

DL