What programs do you use for creating technical documents???.....  - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / projects

author: Smokey
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 29, 2016, 05:07:40 pm
content: What program do you guys use for creating technical documents like user manuals?Keeping formatting consistent in Word/Libreoffice-writer is seriously painful. Graphics seem to always get botched, especially when exporting to PDF.What's the better way?

author: b_force
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 29, 2016, 05:19:48 pm
content: I don't understand why you say that graphics are getting botched.In my past I have been making a sh*t load of reports (three times a week with an average of 10-25 pages).Never encountered a problem when exporting to PDF.Going from one program to another, between Office 2003, 2007, new ones and even more between Microsoft and LibreOffice is on the other hand a disaster.In the science world a lot of people use LaTeX, because you have complete freedom.

author: Smokey
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 29, 2016, 06:30:36 pm
content: Specifically I end up putting a lot of dxf graphics in and they never seem to come out right in the conversions.

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 29, 2016, 06:49:21 pm
content: I create drawings with MS Visio and then paste into Word. I don't even bother trying that with OpenOffice.

author: StefanHamminga
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 29, 2016, 10:32:41 pm
content: For documents that need to look better than a regular Word document I like to useScribus.There is a bit of a learning curve but you have a lot more control over what happens with your output. It's not a pleasure for a 1000 page document though (getting better with the recently added 'Story Editor'). SVG support is pretty good compared to the office suites and generated PDFs tend to look a lot nicer than above mentioned alternatives.If you have a lot of repetition and stick to one standard way to present images / content you could use a document generator likepandoc. Write your manual / guide / etc in Markdown and compile at will. Unbeatable for write speed once dialed in. I've created very nice looking eBooks like this.If neither one of those will do I'd use Word, it's pretty decent if you avoid manual formatting like the plague it is.

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 29, 2016, 11:54:13 pm
content: Word for text , Adobe Illustrator for drawing ( vector drawings ) Adobe InDesign for makeup.

author: donmr
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 29, 2016, 11:57:26 pm
content: I use Inkscape for drawings (except schematics or real CAD drawings). It can export PNG at any resolution.Most document composing tools (even word processors) can include PNG files.Only Scribus can read Inkscape's SVG and even then with some difficulty. SVG is just not well standardised.

author: JacquesBBB
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 30, 2016, 01:42:20 am
content: Latex + illustrator

author: Someone
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 30, 2016, 02:23:57 am
content: Quote from: free_electron on July 29, 2016, 11:54:13 pmThis is how people need to setup the workflow if they want the polished "professional" look from documents, trying to get it all balanced in a single wysiwyg editor is just too time-consuming and likely to have integration issues with different formats. Scribus is getting some good traction for the layout side so an opensource/free workflow is finally achievable with OO/Inkscape/Gimp/Scribus

author: mathsquid
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 30, 2016, 03:20:32 am
content: I use LaTeX for anything that needs to look professional, except for letters. When I need to write a recommendation letter or something similar, I write it and save it as a plain text file, but I will put it into Word to adjust the pagination and print it.For presentations, it depends on the type. I'll use LaTeX/Beamer for conference presentations or for most things I present in class, but sometimes it's easier to throw together a powerpoint--especially if the presentation has a lot of pictures in it. However, I always convert the powerpoint to a PDF so I know it will run on whatever computer I'm using to give the presentation.

author: Messtechniker
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 30, 2016, 05:16:57 am
content: Quote from: free_electron on July 29, 2016, 11:54:13 pmSimply the way to go. Consider Word as a word processor with added layout functions.Will do for simple layouts (single column) up to say 4 to 8 standard pages with fewfigures and no footnotes avoiding most of the automation offered like Table of Contents,indexing, macros, changing headers, format templates and footers.The only thing that works really well and which is really flexible in Word (all versions)is Tables. Once you have seen Word suddenly stack up all images (not contained in atable box) on top of each other on one page or completely mess up your footnotesyou will be convinced.So for higher requirements use a common DTP programme as recommended here.Even any Freeware DTP programme will be better than Word provided you will notneed to exchange native DTP documents.I've been through most of them - Started in the 80ies with a Xerox system with itsMesa GUI operating system long before the Apple GUI and Windows GUI were born;then Ventura Publisher on XT clones running Windows 3.1 followed by Pagemaker,Quark Express, Framemaker and Indesign.Just my experience.Yours Messtechniker

author: ivaylo
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 30, 2016, 06:43:28 am
content: Jupyter Notebooks for periodic (monthly, quarterly, etc) reports, LucidChart for whatever I can't plot with that.

author: Pjotr
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 30, 2016, 11:12:24 am
content: Many people find MS Publisher a toy. Actually, for regular reports and manuals that need an extra touch up, it is just right. It comes as part of MS Office bundles but is often overlooked. Easy to learn without too many unnecessary complex handles.

author: prasimix
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 30, 2016, 12:21:35 pm
content: The thing is that people in OpenOffice Writer is not pushed to format all page elements like that requires more specialized tools. Therefore they never develop a discipline to use extensively e.g. characters, paragraphs and pages styles. That makes them pretty soon miserable and think that OOW (same is with the MS Word) worth much less for such purpose than it is really the case.Until now I published 5 illustrated books (most of them are 300+ pages) using Print-on-Demand and traditionally printing shop that was with exception of cover page (I'm usingScribus) prepared in OOW.

author: b_force
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 30, 2016, 08:49:51 pm
content: Quote from: Smokey on July 29, 2016, 06:30:36 pmIt's all about exporting/making screenshot the right way.Next is to select the right options for aligned and so on

author: rfbroadband
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 31, 2016, 02:04:18 am
content: Latex + Illustrator

author: Smokey
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 29, 2016, 05:30:33 pm
content: Is there a way to buy Indesign, or is the only option a monthly subscription?

author: woodchips
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 29, 2016, 05:51:55 pm
content: The other problem is how long do you want to use these documents? My wife edits and page layouts books to novel laureate level, and unfortunately they all write in word which is the spawn of the devil. Possibly ok for small documents, but once you hit 50MB with all the diagrams then it can't really cope. And the problems get worse as the versions of word, operating system and printer drivers all change. I have some simple 30 page manuals done in word about 7 years ago. Printed fine on the Xerox 7300 but that is now no longer supported by Apple (why not? a driver is just an interface, what has changed?) so try it on a HP2055, fonts aren't the same so comes out screwed up. Ok, can embed the fonts, but that makes a 2MB file into a 30MB file.I just have to struggle with this, I no longer have the interest to struggle and fix yet another interface, as in software, problem. I am seriously looking at transferring it back to my Windows 3.1 and Ventura 4.1 setup using a Lexmark Postscript printer just so I can support the printing of simple documents for the next 10 years.If nothing you do has to last for more than a few years, 4 or 5, then anything you like will do. But for long term access it isn't so easy. This current saga of the HP cartridges with the chips in them is just the start.

author: ksmccausland
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: September 29, 2016, 09:23:19 pm
content: If you really want FULL control over how your document looks you could use InkScape, free. It should be able to import .dxf natively and then let you make changes to it within the program itself. It's not really meant for multi-page documents though so it'd really be a pain. I just use Google docs as I can open it on any computer and that always works out fine.

author: voltsandjolts
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 31, 2021, 01:29:05 pm
content: There was some off-topic discussion in another about technical authoring tools, thought I would add something to this sleeping beauty.I've always used Word for documentation but it does get in the way sometimes.What is the next step up for a small sized engineering company (<50) with no dedicated technical authors?PDF document properties sometimes show the tool used to create the document.Looking at some random datasheets from big name manufacturers I noticed:ManufacturerToolLinkCostAnalog DevicesMS WordBroadcomAdobe In-Designhttps://www.adobe.com/products/indesign.htmlcirca 30USD/monthTexas InstrumentsTopleafhttps://turnkey.com.au/topleaf/circa 700USD/seatMicrochipAdobe Framemakerhttps://www.adobe.com/products/framemaker.htmlcirca 30USD/monthDallasQuarkXPresshttps://www.quark.com/products/QuarkXPress/circa 500GBPRaspPiAsciidoctorhttps://asciidoctor.org/free/open sourceSTAntenna Househttps://www.antennahouse.com/formatter-v7$1000 and upwardsToshibaMS WordiC-Haus GmbHLatexThere is an aerospace documentation standard S1000Dhttps://s1000d.org/with software tooling prices beyond my range of interest.From the above it seems there is no clear winner.Myself, I'm not interested in Desktop Publishing packages, I just want simple text based entry (for easy version control integration and zero-distraction editing) and click a few buttons to produce PDF, HTML and maybe ePub, using pre-designed template formatting. Having looked around I think the options in my company would be:TopleafNever tried it but looks interesting. Pricing at my limit. The TI datasheets certainly looks great but likely that's after many, many hours of template design.Template design difficulty unknown.DocBookAn XML format which is well supported by editors such as OxygenXML or XMLmind or maybe XmetaL. Pandoc amoung others for output.Template design difficulty unknown.AsciidoctorLooks like a nice simple entry syntax. Can generate PDF, HTML and DocBook outputs.Template design difficulty unknown.LatexOld but still an option I think, although I've never seen datasheets produced with it.It can produce great looking documents but from my thesis days I remember customising output formats was a huge effort.Summary: beware, lots of rabbit holes to disappear down!....sigh, back to Word for now.

author: Terry Bites
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 31, 2021, 02:22:44 pm
content: PDFelement. no export worries. I use microsoft-mathematics-4 as my equation editor. You probably want to print your schematics to file, Tiff or jpg and import them into your document. Printscreen captures are crappy.I aslo find word often fails to create a decent pdf if at all.LaTex works well but is an uphill struggle.

author: voltsandjolts
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 31, 2021, 03:55:16 pm
content: Using a PDF editor to create a document is more akin to Desktop Publishing, which is exactly what I want to avoid.Hmm, raster graphics are the last resort if vector artwork unavailable or not feasible.Use Inkscape, Illustrator, Krita etc for technical drawings, gnuplot/matplotlib/matlab/octave etc for vector data plots.

author: PKTKS
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 31, 2021, 04:22:24 pm
content: LaTeX.Nothing - really nothing - can even come close to what it can be done in TeX.There was once upon a time ahuge effortto accomplish some tasks...but that is something in the past. Modern TeX (LaTeX) is orders of magnitude better.And for the record - there are classes for everything - from books (KOMA) to letters.Classes and extensions for add ons like BodePlots BarCodes or Schematicsof course TeX can produce high precision printings from data, graphs or images.Nothing comparesLearning curve is steep.Paul

author: David Hess
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 31, 2021, 04:23:02 pm
content: I make drawings in very old AutoCad and import into whatever word processing or page layout software I happen to be using.

author: PKTKS
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 31, 2021, 04:28:13 pm
content: Quote from: David Hess on August 31, 2021, 04:23:02 pmI ve been there a long long time ago..The pitfall using proprietary packages is that:- they are non portable- they depend on some specific OS and version- they require apart that licensing and re-licensing.- they are programmed to obsolete your work and re-license- they fail to export (escape the jail)- they fail even to keep pace with new OS and formatsThe whole sum equals to a very bad workflow and expensive TCOsAll solved by using open standard TeX and open classes and formats.Paul

author: fcb
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 31, 2021, 04:31:08 pm
content: We've just gone over to HelpNDoc for writing manuals.

author: Conrad Hoffman
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 31, 2021, 05:01:40 pm
content: Office 365 at work and home, so Word for most things. I find the biggest problem with Word is most people aren't very good at using it. Hate working on other people's documents. I'm no world-class user, but it does most things well, once you figure out the right way to do them. It's definitely not a page layout program and if I were doing a book of mostly photos or something, it's the last thing I'd use. MS Publisher works OK, but it's sort of clunky and limited. My reports have a lot of CAD drawings and photos, but not fancy layouts, so Word is perfect. I use Affinity Photo to tune up images and output them at a reasonable resolution.

author: David Hess
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 31, 2021, 05:11:43 pm
content: Quote from: PKTKS on August 31, 2021, 04:28:13 pmI agree but in the past AutoCad is what I had, and I have not found an adequate replacement.

author: PKTKS
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 31, 2021, 05:19:34 pm
content: Quote from: David Hess on August 31, 2021, 05:11:43 pmAutoCAD much like MS is a shitshow by itself.But orders of magnitude harder to get rid of.I remember when they "locked" R12 with "original" "authentic" format stuff..So .. the bottom line is not AutCAD but the formats underneath.Nothing is really close in that particular arena.Closest thing I have always fallback is PostScript.DXF may have some interesting export/import results...50% chance.Best thing is to get rid of these locked formats.. if possible at allPaul

author: voltsandjolts
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 31, 2021, 05:38:20 pm
content: Quote from: PKTKS on August 31, 2021, 04:22:24 pmI like the \$\LaTeX\$ workflow, ascii entry, easy version control and TexMaker is quite a good cross-platform "IDE", if you want an IDE.But the scary thought is trying to create a customised package for a report document format I want.

author: voltsandjolts
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 31, 2021, 05:42:33 pm
content: Quote from: fcb on August 31, 2021, 04:31:08 pmInteresting, outputs to PDF, HTML, ePub and others.Price is a reasonable 299€Let us know how you get on with that!https://www.helpndoc.com/

author: tszaboo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 31, 2021, 05:50:58 pm
content: MS Word for text. We don't have the money for the free tools.Altium Draftsman for drawings.Wireviz for cables, and Jupyter notebook for calculations plots, visualizations.Mechanical drawings are ... who cares.

author: Renate
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 31, 2021, 06:07:40 pm
content: If you use per-seat tools do you not have to pay if you have a standing desk?I'm moving to online HTML, Windows (ancient HTML Help, .chm) and EPUB, all generated automatically.The documentation source is (Notepad++ editted) HTML and PNG.The source HTML includes multiple output HTML files in a single file.So you could have a file named "config.htm" that gets converted into cfg1a.htm, cfg1b.htm, cfg2.htm, cfgerrata.htmThe source file doesn't include boring stuff like body or link css, that's part of the wrapper that gets put in during expansion/splitting part.

author: PKTKS
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 31, 2021, 06:17:45 pm
content: Quote from: voltsandjolts on August 31, 2021, 05:38:20 pmNever bothered making my own..All layouts or doc types I ever needed I could find a class near perfect fit for it.The capabilities to generate BodePlots BarCodes and circuit symbols (using TikZ aka CIRCUITIKZ) and chemical symbols andabsolute perfect math.. it all fits with no possible comparable result using some proprietary softwareI just took me time to learn each new class or package needed..The GUI never really helped as much as latex PERL does.always fallback using latex front end.. it helps to debugPaul

author: fcb
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 31, 2021, 06:18:40 pm
content: Quote from: voltsandjolts on August 31, 2021, 05:42:33 pmYeah - will do. So far I really like it, very fast to use.

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 31, 2021, 06:46:30 pm
content: Quote from: PKTKS on August 31, 2021, 06:17:45 pmI have. If you want your docs to look decently "custom", your pretty much have to. But this is no rocket science. And, I've stuck to simple layout stuff too. Cover pages, chapter and section titles, footers and headers, things like this. But at least then it looks a bit less like your basic student report (which is not bad per se, but doesn't cut it for professional document IMHO, at least if this is on behalf of a company and it is going to be deployed outside of it.

author: m98
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 31, 2021, 11:32:10 pm
content: I useSphinxfor HTML documentation and manuals. Everything else, Word or InDesign.

author: SilverSolder
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 01, 2021, 12:25:55 am
content: Quote from: Pjotr on July 30, 2016, 11:12:24 am+1 for Publisher, it is a hidden gem in the Office suite that nobody has paid much attention to, so it isn't bloated with useless features and is a great little problem solver. It supports VBA so can be automated to the max if you have regular reports.

author: rsjsouza
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 01, 2021, 01:12:20 am
content: I've used several versions of Word: 2.0 (for DOS), 6.0 for WfW and 95, 1997 through 2019 (without skipping) and I like it as long as you play along with it. As Conrad mentioned, when too many hands touch a document, it becomes messy quite quickly.Other curiosities that I used were Chiwriter (quite nice for the DOS PCs), LaTex, Wolfram's Mathematica... Then HTML, Twiki, MediaWiki, Markdown, Rest/Sphinx and I am starting on SDL Tridion/Oxygen. I never got into the Wordperfect bandwagon, but the irony is that I have a sealed copy here, bought last year on a large ancient SW package from a local guy.Of all these, the one I absolutely love for online documentation (not printing) is MediaWiki. It also scaled quite well across many teams (tables were crap with it). Rest/Sphinx creates better structured documents, but it does not allow great formatting (IMO). Markdown is way too simple, but the way we used (an HTML file with markdown css wrappers) actually allowed a lot of flexibility with raw HTML (my boss called "hacking"). I would love to use LaTEX professionally, but it is simply a null ponter everywhere I worked.

author: Zucca
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 01, 2021, 01:27:42 am
content: Once you know LaTeX all the rest is just noise.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 01, 2021, 05:28:26 am
content: Quote from: Messtechniker on July 30, 2016, 05:16:57 amWell that’s what Word is. I think that 95% of the hate for Word comes from people either a) thinking it’s a layout program, which it really isn’t, or b) simply not understanding how Word “thinks” (in particular, not understanding the role of styles, paragraphs, and sections).P.S. Speaking of layouts, please leave the layout of forum posts up to the browser: please do not insert line breaks manually. When you do, you’re forcing a layout for a specific screen size, and when someone comes along and looks at it on their phone on the way to work, for example, you get the mess in the attached screenshot.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 01, 2021, 05:33:42 am
content: Quote from: Renate on August 31, 2021, 06:07:40 pmAt my old job where I worked as a technical writer, we used a program called Help and Manual to write the manual. It outputs chm, regular HTML, and PDF (among other things). With a bit of care in setting up templates, the output is not bad at all.But man did I hate its editor, simply because of a few quirks of text selection behavior that differ from the behavior of every other text editing environment I used (Word, Outlook, and Chrome on Windows, and everything on Mac), which just slowed me down because I could not unlearn decades of muscle memory specifically within one program…

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 01, 2021, 05:36:25 am
content: Quote from: prasimix on July 30, 2016, 12:21:35 pmAm I correct that what you’re saying is that most OOW and Word users largely fail to invest the time to set up and then consistently use styles, and then think it’s the program’s fault?If so, I completely agree with you 100%.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 01, 2021, 05:38:12 am
content: Regarding LaTeX: Last time I looked into it (which has been a while), one thing I didn’t like was the meager selection of fonts. (Which is why so many LaTeX documents look alike.) Has this gotten any better?

author: armandine2
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 01, 2021, 07:07:11 am
content: I've usedpaintand converted it toAdobeto make P&I Diagrams - not tried to do schematic wiring or anything electronic but imagine it would be the same. The paint drawing skill takes a while to get but you can soon get it to a presentable level, I found.

author: emece67
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 01, 2021, 10:41:28 am
content: .

author: joeqsmith
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 01, 2021, 11:49:21 am
content: Quote from: emece67 on September 01, 2021, 10:41:28 amThis is the path I followed as well. When I first started using the IBM PC (pre hard drive days and no scan for additional BIOS to support one), WordStar ran fine. Eventually, we started to add memory and WordStar would no longer run. It came up with an error about the PC not having enough memory. I used Debug to disassemble the code and then stepped through until I found the fault. It seems they had a sign problem with their compare. So I modified it (guessing that was my first hack ever on a PC) and we were back in business.Eventually as we continued to add even more memory were changing the dip switches to tell BIOS there was less memory than there really was and would over right the values after the PC booted to avoid the VERY long memory checks.By the time WordPerfect came out, I had those stupid WordStar control codes stuck in my memory banks and rather than learning all new, I macro'ed the crap out of it.

author: SilverSolder
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 01, 2021, 12:16:21 pm
content: Yeah, I remember WordStar as well - funny, I think I would still be able to use it if confronted with it today, with all the codes stored in muscle memory!

author: perdrix
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 01, 2021, 02:53:13 pm
content: Come back Ventura Publisher all is forgiven - I never forgave Corel for ditching it.D.

author: PKTKS
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 01, 2021, 03:58:10 pm
content: Quote from: emece67 on September 01, 2021, 10:41:28 amALOThas gone under TeX last 15y.Try the following snippet under a decent TeX installationCode:%& -shell-escape\documentclass{article}\usepackage{verbatim}\usepackage[active,tightpage]{preview}\usepackage{ifthen}\usepackage{tikz}\usepackage{pgf}\usepackage{pgffor}\usepgfmodule{shapes}\usepgfmodule{plot}\usetikzlibrary{arrows,intersections,decorations,snakes}\setlength\PreviewBorder{5pt}%\newcommand{\Gitter}{\draw[very thin,color=gray] (#1,#3) grid (#2,#4);}\newcommand{\Koordinatenkreuz}{\draw[->, >=latex, color=green!50!black] (#1,0) -- (#2,0) node {#5};\draw[->, >=latex, color=green!50!black] (0,#3) -- (0,#4) node {#6};}\newcommand{\KoordinatenkreuzOhneLabelsVerschobenKeinPfeil}{\draw[-] (#1,0) -- (#2,0);\draw[-] (#5,#3) -- (#5,#4);}\newcommand{\ZeigerdiagrammText}{\begin{tikzpicture}[scale=.72, samples=100, >=latex]\def\Alpha{#1}\def\Phase{#2}\def\AmplitudeSpannung{#3}\def\AmplitudeStrom{#4}\def\SpannungsWert{{\AmplitudeSpannung*sin(\Alpha)}}\def\StromWert{{\AmplitudeStrom*sin(\Alpha+\Phase)}}\def\FarbeSpannung{blue!90!white}\def\FarbeStrom{red!90!white}\def\FarbeWinkelZeichnung{green}\def\Beta{\Alpha+\Phase}\def\AlphaRad{\Alpha*3.141592654/180}\def\PhaseRad{\Phase*3.141592654/180}\Gitter{-.1}{7.1}{-3.1}{3.1}\Koordinatenkreuz{-.2}{7.3}{-3.2}{3.3}{$\omega t$}{}\draw (1.570795,0) node{$\frac{\pi}{2}$};\draw (3.14159,0) node{${\pi}$};\draw (4.71238898,0) node{$\frac{3\pi}{2}$};\draw (6.283185307,0) node{${2\pi}$};\draw (-4,0) circle (3cm);\KoordinatenkreuzOhneLabelsVerschobenKeinPfeil{-7.2}{-.8}{-3.6}{3.6}{-4}\draw[color=\FarbeSpannung, very thick] plot[id=voltage, domain=0:7] function{\AmplitudeSpannung*sin(x)} node {$U(t)$};\draw[color=\FarbeSpannung, loosely dashed] (-4,0) circle (\AmplitudeSpannung cm);\draw[color=\FarbeWinkelZeichnung!50!black, thick] (\AlphaRad, \SpannungsWert)--(\AlphaRad,\StromWert) node[below=18pt] {$\alpha$};\filldraw[fill=\FarbeWinkelZeichnung!20,draw=\FarbeWinkelZeichnung!50!black] (-4,0) -- (-3,0) arc (0:\Alpha:1) -- cycle node {$\alpha$};\draw[<-,color=\FarbeSpannung, very thick] (\Alpha:\AmplitudeSpannung)++(-4,0) --(-4,0);\draw[color=\FarbeSpannung, dashed] (\Alpha:\AmplitudeSpannung)++(-4,0) -- (\AlphaRad,\SpannungsWert);\draw[color=\FarbeStrom, very thick] plot[id=current, domain=0:7] function{\AmplitudeStrom*sin(x+\PhaseRad)} node {$I(t)$};\draw[color=\FarbeStrom, loosely dashed] (-4,0) circle (\AmplitudeStrom cm);\draw[<-,color=\FarbeStrom, very thick] (\Beta:\AmplitudeStrom)++(-4,0) --(-4,0);\draw[color=\FarbeStrom, dashed](\Beta:\AmplitudeStrom)++(-4,0) -- (\AlphaRad,\StromWert);\ifthenelse{\Phase<0}{\draw[snake=brace] (pi/2 ,3.3)--(pi/2-\PhaseRad ,3.3) node[above=7pt, left=10pt] {$\phi$};}{\draw[snake=brace] (pi/2-\PhaseRad ,3.3)--(pi/2 ,3.3) node[above=7pt, left=10pt] {$\phi$};}\draw[->, xshift=-4cm] (120:2.4cm) arc (120:170:2) node {$\omega$};\end{tikzpicture}}\newcommand{\Regression}{\begin{tikzpicture}[thick,>=stealth',dot/.style = {draw,fill = white,circle,inner sep = 0pt,minimum size = 4pt}]\coordinate (O) at (0,0);\draw[->] (-0.3,0) -- (8,0) coordinate[label = {below:$x$}] (xmax);\draw[->] (0,-0.3) -- (0,5) coordinate[label = {right:$f(x)$}] (ymax);\path[name path=x] (0.3,0.5) -- (6.7,4.7);\path[name path=y] plot coordinates {(-0.3,2) (2,1.5) (4,2.8) (6,5)};\scope[name intersections = {of = x and y, name = i}]\fill[gray!20] (i-1) -- (i-2 |- i-1) -- (i-2) -- cycle;\draw (0.3,0.5) -- (6.7,4.7) node[pos=0.8, below right] {Sekante};\draw plot coordinates {(-0.3,2) (2,1.5) (4,2.8) (6,5)};\draw (i-1) node[dot, label = {above:$P$}] (i-1) {} -- node{$f(x_0)$} (i-1 |- O) node[dot, label = {below:$x_0$}] {};\path (i-2) node[dot, label = {above:$Q$}] (i-2) {} -- (i-2 |- i-1)node (i-12) {};\draw (i-12) -- (i-12 |- O) node[dot,label = {below:$x_0 + \varepsilon$}] {};\draw[blue, <->] (i-2) -- node {$f(x_0 + \varepsilon) - f(x_0)$}(i-12);\draw[blue, <->] (i-1) -- node {$\varepsilon$} (i-12);\path (i-1 |- O) -- node {$\varepsilon$} (i-2 |- O);\draw (i-2) -- (i-2 -| xmax);\draw[gray, <->] ([xshift = -0.5cm]i-2 -| xmax) -- node[fill = white]{$f(x_0 + \varepsilon)$} ([xshift = -0.5cm]xmax);\endscope\end{tikzpicture}}\begin{document}\begin{preview}\ZeigerdiagrammText{60}{0}{2.7}{1.8}\ZeigerdiagrammText{60}{-90}{2.7}{1.8}\ZeigerdiagrammText{60}{90}{2.7}{1.8}\Regression\end{preview}\end{document}A simple example taken from proper places.No software package can do that thing inany proper formatthat easyPaul

author: Conrad Hoffman
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 01, 2021, 04:35:25 pm
content: Very nice! Reminds me that I use Gnuplot for some graphs. We have wizards with Solidworks and when I need 3D I just go to them. No way could I learn that in any reasonable amount of time. For 2D I like Visual CADD better than Autocad. Drawings can be tweaked for excellent presentation, something I find more difficult with other programs. Because there are various 2D programs available for free, I think the price is a bit high, but they probably still have an "upgrade" offer to get you from Autocad or other programs, to Visual CADD. IMO, commercial use of 2D is winding down, as everybody is or has migrated to Solidworks or similar programs.http://www.tritools.com/http://www.gnuplot.info/

author: PKTKS
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 01, 2021, 04:51:46 pm
content: Quote from: Conrad Hoffman on September 01, 2021, 04:35:25 pmYep very nice .. I would risk saying the capabilities of TeX are unpaired..To complete the demo TeX can interpret embed GNUPlot code directly..e.g. instead of plotting gnuplot onto a LaTeX terminal ( or TikZ terminal )you can just put gnuplot inside TeX and interpret via latex.TryCode:\documentclass{article}\usepackage{gnuplottex}\begin{document}\begin{figure}%\centering%\begin{gnuplot}[terminal=epslatex, terminaloptions=color]FIT_LIMIT = 1e-25set datafile missing 'NaN'set samples 1e3set isosamples 1e2set title font "Arial,14,bold,iso8859" enhancedset xlabel font "Arial,12,medium,iso8859" enhancedset ylabel font "Arial,12,medium,iso8859" enhancedset x2label font "Arial,12,medium,iso8859" enhancedset y2label font "Arial,12,medium,iso8859" enhancedset label font "Arial,12,medium,iso8859" enhanced at 1,1set angles radiansset nopolarset zeroaxis lw 2 lt 0set style function linesset nokeyset tics outset border front ls 3 lw 1 lt 8set grid back xtics ytics nox2tics y2tics ls 7 lw 0.100, ls 15 lw 0.100set grid back mxtics mytics mx2tics my2tics ls 8 lw 0.100, ls 15 lw 0.100set arrow filled ls 7 from 1,1 to 1,1show ticsshow mxticsshow mx2ticsshow myticsshow my2ticsshow labelshow bordershow titleset xr [-5:5]set yr [-1:1]set xlabel '$x$'set ylabel '$y$'plot sin(x) w l lc 1 t '$\sin(x)$',\cos(x) w l lc 2 t '$\cos(x)$',\tan(x) w l lc 3 t '$\tan(x)$',\tanh(x) w l lc 4 t '$\tanh(x)$'\end{gnuplot}\caption{This is a simple example using the latex-terminal.}%\label{pic:latex}%\end{figure}%\end{document}absolute worth saving in generating complex documentation..GNUPlot and other packages can not do direct inline math like TeX.(although some tricks allow embedding stuff results are far from good)Paul

author: PKTKS
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 01, 2021, 04:58:39 pm
content: Here another most interesting gem about TeX..The Circuit and Chemical symbols packages allows arbitrary high quality circuit documentation almost effortless.. all your created library can be reused as wellTry:Code:\documentclass{article}\usepackage{inputenc}\usepackage{babel}\usepackage{circuitikz}\begin{document}\begin{center}\begin{circuitikz} \draw(0,0) to[ variable cute inductor ] (2,0);\end{circuitikz}\end{center}\begin{center}\begin{circuitikz}[american voltages]\draw(0,0) to [short, *-] (6,0)to [V, l_=$\mathrm{j}{\omega}_m \underline{\psi}^s_R$] (6,2)to [R, l_=$R_R$] (6,4)to [short, i_=$\underline{i}^s_R$] (5,4)(0,0) to [open, v^>=$\underline{u}^s_s$] (0,4)to [short, *- ,i=$\underline{i}^s_s$] (1,4)to [R, l=$R_s$] (3,4)to [L, l=$L_{\sigma}$] (5,4)to [short, i_=$\underline{i}^s_M$] (5,3)to [L, l_=$L_M$] (5,0);\end{circuitikz}\end{center}\end{document}I like this one very much among TeX packagesAny arbitrary high quality format can be used as terminal outputPaul

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 01, 2021, 05:24:55 pm
content: Quote from: Zucca on September 01, 2021, 01:27:42 amOh, I agree. But doing everything in LaTeX is not easy though when you work in a company, because anyone else potentially having to edit your documents has to know LaTeX as well... this is particularly problematic for manuals - for which marketing departments often want to have the final say, be able to edit appearance, etc. Try having a marketing person use LaTeX...

author: Bassman59
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 01, 2021, 05:26:13 pm
content: Quote from: perdrix on September 01, 2021, 02:53:13 pmCome back Lotus Manuscript!!!

author: PKTKS
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 01, 2021, 05:35:12 pm
content: Quote from: SiliconWizard on September 01, 2021, 05:24:55 pmYep YOU DO HAVE A POINT HERE..TeX learning curve is steep ..but the capabilities are far more strong.Best of all also free of charge as in OSSTotal final cost must be a weight factor.Nevertheless PostScript isfarmore difficult to learn than TeXPaul

author: emece67
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 01, 2021, 06:26:00 pm
content: .

author: TheUnnamedNewbie
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 02, 2021, 11:37:19 am
content: I have to use Latex a lot, and similarly to linux, I never really understood all the hype.I feel like both of them 'seem' better because you are more forced to do things 'the right way' or you are forced to learn the insides because it just has that steep a learning curve.I think if people spent as much time learning to use MS Word, InDesign, or similar tools as they do learning LaTeX, it wouldn't be anywhere near as popular as it is.Myself, I use InDesign a lot. Heck, I even cloned my place-of-work's powerpoint template into InDesign so I can use InDesign for presentations too. My graphics are all made in Illustrator. Graphs I have a workflow of standard-plot-scripts that I use to produce the raw graph in Matlab, and then do some postprocessing (sometimes) in Illustrator too. What I love about the Illustrator+indesign flow is the use of multiple layers in Illustrator, which I can toggle in Indesign. Makes it very nice to 'add' traces to graphs across a number of slides, or 'build up' a figure gradually.Papers I find myself being forced to use LaTeX often simply because the organizers only offer a (mandatory) LaTeX template, sometimes even requireing you to send in the plaintext latex file along with a PDF for their internal typesetting flow.