Your favorite diagramming software

[bshuval]

Would you mind sharing your template?

[OrigamiMagiro]

Hey anyone, (specifically Robert since you brought it up ) what do people think of CAD programs? I believe they are not MAC compatable, no? I tried one on my dad's computer but I just went back to Freehand because it was MAC.

[erasorhed]

Good ol' MS Paint. Ughhh. :|

[Joe the white]

I like MS Paint, FreeHand is ok, and I like AutoCad 98 fairly well, but I've only used it at school.

[Walden]

One can probably look at my diagrams and figure out which one I voted.

[T]

currently I'm using Mayura Draw

then printing it out and drawing all the arrows
then i scan it back into adobe pdf.

[wolf]

Carried over from the culled threads started by NumboJumbo:

As far as I know, there's about three pieces of software that's specifically tailored for origami - OriDraw, Doodle and Foldinator.

The first two have working versions while the last appears to be in a state of suspended animation. The problem is mostly the lack of a solid user base, so most of these programs never get beyond a basic demo stage.

Anyhow, I've tried the first two and found them clunky to use, with a fairly steep learning curve. My personal opinion is that you're better off learning how to use a full featured vector graphics package instead. These provide more than enough tools to draw supercomplex diagrams, and you can use them to do many other things apart from origami illustrations.

eBay is a good place to get commercial software cheaply; and even though they're usually older versions of Illustrator/Freehand/Canvas, they are good enough for diagramming. Or you could just use Cygwin/xfig, which is free.

[MeadowMuffin]

So far, I think I have started three diagrams and have yet to complete one, but so far, PowerPoint has been the tool of choice for me. I'm sure that there are better things out there though.

[EricGjerde]

(cross posted from another thread- my apologies for the spamming.)

Once I got up to speed on it, I have found that I particularly enjoy using Illustrator for doing CP and related things. Mind you, I'm pretty much a geometric-tessellation-etc kind of guy, so it's not like I'm trying to illustrate collapsing a wet-folded curve or something.

however, I find Illustrator's "Smart Guides" to be amazingly useful- I can set angles, and lines will just snap to those angles when I draw them; they automatically snap to other lines, etc, so drawing a grid or complex CP for a tessellation becomes extremely easy to do (once, of course, you unfold your work and figure out where all the creases actually are!)

there's also a very nice tool in development called ORIPA - it's only in japanese, and runs as a java applet (it's a packed .jar file). it's very rough around the edges, and requires some fiddling to get working- and, of course, it's only in japanese- but it's quite easy to use. once you lay out a crease pattern, you can hit a button and it will fold it and show you how that would look as a fold. it's impressive and it looks like things are really developing well on the project. I haven't done a writeup on it yet, but I'm planning to once I play some more and take some better screen shots.

you can download the ORIPA program from here.

it requires the Java JRE 1.5.0 (linked there) and potentially also the Java3D thing (also linked there). once you have those, you can just right-click on the .jar file and "save as". then you can just doubleclick on it and it will run.

there's also a Wiki there with many existing examples (the traditional crane, various bases, etc) which you can download and try.

the program has it's own format, but exports to .dxf (a standard CAD/CAM format) which can be opened in things like illustrator, CorelDraw, and others.

that's my 2 cents! I'm cross-posting this to the CP thread as well, just to be obnoxious.

big thanks to Komatsu Hideo, for linking to this program on his blog, "fold/unfold". he has some great examples of what he's been doing with it, and I'm really glad he turned me on to this neat program.

[steingar]

I just voted for "other" because my favorite diagramming program, Canvas, is not on the list.

I've been using Canvas since version 3.0 (back in 1990), and now it's in version 8.04. I've used Freehand and Illustrator, and I maintain that Canvas is by far the most versatile all-around drawing program out there.

Canvas does have its bugs, but I feel these are compensated by it's features. For one thing, it can handle just about any file format you can think of. I find Freehand very limiting because it only uses EPS, and only Freehand generated EPS at that. In Canvas you can whip out bitmapped images and vector images, do jpgs, EPS, pict, gif, and a dozen others that I never even use. Heck, I've gotten EPS files from people in Japan, and Canvas would read them in and convert them to vector objects no problem. Try doing that in Freehand.

--- Tom Hull

That Tom Hull sure is a smart guy. Good thing we have a nice little Japanese restaurant down the street, or we would never see him.

I second the vote for Canvas. You can create either vector or bitmap images, and it works very intuitively, something I cannot say for Illustrator or Freehand (in whatever form it now exists). Anyone worried about publication quality; book number 1 (Stationery Flight) was done completely in Canvas, and book number 2 is at the publisher's right now. It handles photographs and text very well. Good software for diagramming, and is now in version 10.

[insaneorigami]

I find that the best software for diagramming is the good 'ol pencil and graph paper. Robert Lang himself recommending me to using pencil and paper, and I find that it works splendidly. ALso, while PC generated diagrams appear to be much more accurate and neat, I find that the pencil and graph paper gives the diagrams a look that clearly says "I put a lot of time into this" (not implying that PC diagrams don't take time)

[ftangdude55]

I have found Inkscape to be a pretty good tool.
It does take a little while to figure out how to do things (with regard to folds and such), but it all comes together after you learn how.

[Ondrej.Cibulka]

You forgot for Inkscape, it is not just "others".

[ahudson]

oh, thread diggers... what will you find next?

Ondrej, this poll was created in 2003. Inkscape had just been started!

[Ondrej.Cibulka]

Oh, I am sorry. Who bring this poll to the life? I usually see at the forum once per several days and very quickly so I missed this detail.