Hello folks,
Would you care to share some pointers to drafting software which you use to draw up architectural drafts (for telecoms networks, including cable operators’ networks) ?
I’ve found Visio to be a bit weak in this respect, even after adding third party stencils.
One product I’m exploring is ConceptDraw’s “diagram” product, but I’d like to hear about anything you can share with me.
Cheers,
Etienne
For physical plant (fiber) design, analysis and inventory, Vetro is really useful.
TikZ ?
mh
For logical diagrams of networks, on MacOS, I recommend Omnigraffle.
I’ve found PowerPoint amazingly versatile for network design. It’s primary advantage over dedicated tools like Visio is that you can mix in photos, talking points, and migration checklists. Plus everyone can read and edit PowerPoint.
You can use the stencils and icons from many graphics libraries. No, it won’t redraw lines as you drag objects (at least not well), but I find the other advantages persuasive.
-mel via cell
For logical diagrams of networks, on MacOS, I recommend Omnigraffle.
OmniGraffle is what Visio would be if Visio was cool, looked good and
didn't hate its users. Only drawback -- to some -- is that it's OS X only.
Folks, thanks for the pointers; much appreciated.
OmniGraffle seems to have some traction.
Perhaps I haven’t done Visio justice, as I’ve received a few pointers that way too.
What I can add to my original post is that to date,
I’ve found that the stencils with the broadest scope are those from Cisco.
The Cisco stencils include product genre as well as product-specific icons.
The others I have, like the ones from APC and IBM, are almost wholly product-oriented.
Cheers,
Etienne
Yep, that’s what I’ve always used. If I need to really clean something up, I save it out of Omnigraffle as a PDF, and clean it up in Illustrator.
-Bill