While I have not commented before, I am a frequent user of dia, mostly
for quick mechanical sketches
and for electronics schematics. In my use I find it convenient to
alter the content and order of symbol
groupings on existing sheets, and I have added my own custom sheets and
custom
symbols for specific
application focus (i.e. Hydraulics and PCB Layout). Since I am a Linux
based user
of dia, I find it
convenient to add new sheets and symbols for those sheets in the .dia
directory of my login
page. This
keeps everything clean and well organized so that I know where my own
locally generated
symbols and
sheets reside.
There are a few things that get complaints from actual and/or potential
users of dia.
- There is no "rotation" feature like there is in Visio and many
similar diagram editors.
- Some fonts have their lower going tails truncated, and on most
fonts the right-most character
is cut off on the right side unless an additional blank space is added
to the text string. This
latter problem is more obvious with italic fonts than with straight
block characters.
- Once a set of objects have been "grouped" the size of this group
cannot be altered unless one
un-groups the group and adjusts size of individual components before
re-grouping.
Recent upgrades of dia (micro-movement using arrow keys, etc.) have
increased ease-of-use
and thus increased it's value and popularity. Keep up the excellent
work on dia. It is good now,
but there is always room for improvement.
For those who have not yet found the information, the Additional Shapes
Library addition is a
valuable and very useful toolbox for dia users. It is located at:
<http://dia-installer.de/shapes.html>
The "diashapes" tool is an easy to use and convenient way to download
and install new shape libraries.
What seems to be missing from the shapes library page are instructions
for making your own custom
shapes by using dia itself, and a convenient way to submit your new
shape sets to the dia developers
for
possible availability via this web page.
Thanks for letting me ramble on about dia. I wanted to make my voice
heard for some suggestions
and to vote for making changes slowly in order to insure that they are
real improvements and not
fancy footwork (mousework...?) that adds to user learning curve without
adding to real functionality.
Arv
_._
On 07/16/2010 03:34 AM, Carlo Calderoni wrote:
+1 vote for favorites sheet from me too.
Why mixing shapes from different sheets? If you use the
diagram
for generating code or other tasks (not only for drawing), can be very
useful not having to switch from sheet to sheet. In same diagram you
can have a network schema and a little class that will generate some
C++ code that every night will do checks or "what you want": everyone
can see the network and what will be done on it ;-) .
2010/7/16 Asbjørn A. <asbjorn fellinghaug com>
James
McDonald:
>
> >To make it short, I think it would be more useful for 99% of
users to move to a
> >fast bookmarking system (like right click> Add to
favorites with a "Custom"
> >sheet) instead of customizing system sheets. I think
manipulating system sheets
> >is just not useful: what is the point of putting UML shapes in
Network, really?
> +1 vote. This is a great idea .... Going into sheets and objects to
> make your own custom sheet works but then you have to remember
where
> the favourite shape is and then add it.
+1 vote from me too, this is a feature I would definitly want :)
--
Asbjørn A. Fellinghaug
asbjorn fellinghaug com
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