Re: floor plan shapes

[Valek Filippov <frob gnome org>]

> I think we have a failure to communicate, and perhaps this is your first encounter with open source
> programming.
"Vodka went out through my nostrils" (c).

> About 12 years ago,
<skip>
>  There was no way to make them yourself.  I am not kidding.
About 12 years ago, roughly in 2000, there was Visio 2000 available
which for sure (same as Visio 5 few years before) had no problem with
stencils creation. Sorry.

> I never saw any free Visio stencils
I never saw electrons.

> and at the time there was no API or tools freely available to make them.
That tool has been (was and is) named Visio. Sorry.

> You mention Cisco stencils, they are not Microsoft the owners of Visio,  who
> decided long ago not to give the ability to make Visio stencils freely.
Wrong. Sorry.

>  Cisco can afford the API or whatever it takes to make Visio stencils,
> presumably they did just that.
Wrong. One thing is for sure -- Cisco didn't use Visio to create
shapes, just imported it from yet another vector drawing editor or CAD
(I would suspect one of the Adobe product as an intermediate point,
but I'm lazy to verify it) and saved as stencil files.
Just for a record: Cisco is not the only vendor who publish Visio
stencils of its equipment.
Nortel, Avaya, Zyxel, IBM, Xerox -- name it.
In some cases it's not that easy accessible as Cisco's one and not
every vendor replies to questions about rights of the stencil user,
but if one is not banned on google...

V> "Did you try to make sheets in Dia, seriously?"
> I do not, because my needs don't require it.
But I did. Do you still want to argue? Then try it first.

> If you want shapes, you can make them.  (AFAIK, this IS NOT possible with
> Visio, unless you have the cash to buy the privilege.)
Wrong.

Yet another note... Till Visio 2007 (if memory serves) there was no
easy way to _remove_ stencil items from VSD file.
So once someone send you a VSD (drawing) file with shapes from some
stencils, you automagically also have a copy of all used (including
used but deleted later) elements of the stencil in the drawing file.

>  You are clearly the first who has felt a need for these floor plan shapes with sufficient
> strength to create them, otherwise they would exist.
You probably mistake me with this discussion starter.
I'm not interested in floor plans at all.
The only thing about floor plans I told so far is that I can help to
convert any suitable stencil to SVG.

> I hope this won't discourage you
Quite opposite, you make this evening way more funny for me.
Thank you! =)

> If you think about it, you are offering that $20 in an environment where
If you think about it, I told that "I _would_ ... but...".
I don't need a faceplate drawing, because I can easily use one
provided by Cisco.
I had a hope to gently push you towards understanding that a lot of
shapes are already available,
but you seem to live in the world where Visio cannot create its own stencils.
Shapes useful for floor plans (reminder: I'm not interested in floor
plans, that's not for me) could be relatively easy created (at least
in Visio).
My point is that even this could be avoided by converting existing stencil.

> I think maybe you felt insulted by my reply, and I am sorry for that.
No, that was funny.

>  But reality strikes  - you may just have to learn how to use Dia
> as all before you have done, by experimenting, with patience, and then make
> some shapes.
Well.. you (someone who didn't try to make sheets in Dia) give an
advise to someone who did.
I like this approach.

> post), then to the FAQ, where it is the last thing in the TOC which is
I think I have to ask you one more tricky question...
Did you read the FAQ?

Try #1.5.4 of that FAQ again.

Overall, I suspect it makes sense to check to whom your preaching is directed.

(Don't take it too seriously. Your data about Visio is mostly
harmless^W corrupted.
That and some other misses make it nice to keep for murky days.)

-- 
Cheers,
Valek