Xfig questions

[Howard Gibson]

On Tue, 29 Dec 2009 08:28:51 -0500
David J Patrick <djp-tnsZcVQxgqO2dHQpreyxbg at public.gmane.org> wrote:

> Xfig ? but why ?
> yes Xfig

   Yes, indeed!

> so the questions;
> 
> 
> how to rotate other than 90deg ?
> seems obvious, can't do it.

   Yes, you can.  When you click on any of the buttons on the side of your screen, look at the buttons on the bottom of your screen.  It is there.

> If I want to use fig to create (low-accuracy) scale floorplans, by 
> tracing over a CAD image, what's the best way to set up the scale ?

   Xfig is not really up to the sort of scale drawing required by CAD.  If you want cheap CAD, investigate Qcad.  If you are running Fedora, yum will install it.  You can download it from http://www.ribbonsoft.com.  Qcad is not adequate for serious engineering, but you can do nice home renovation drawings with it. 

   You can scale (resize) complex drawings in Xfig.  "Glue" all of your drawing objects into a compound object.  Scale the compound object.  Break the compound object. 

> Is there such thing as a table-like arrangement, and if there is, would 
> one be able to have individual cel contents ?

   I do not understand what you mean.  You can array drawing components and edit the individual components.  None of this is the least bit intelligent.  If you want intelligence for this process, buy yourself a new computer, install Windows and SolidWorks.  With training and support, you can keep the cost below $15,000.  :)  The 3D_model would be intelligent.  Your drawing would be an image of the 3D_model. 

   ProE is no longer available for Linux.  I  believe UG is.  They took advantage of 64bit Linux before Window supported this feature.  I have never had the chance to run it.  

> thanks for the help, as I turn my back on the googlfied clouded OpenGLy 
> "modern" way, and rediscover things that were cool (and actually worked) 
> in the '90s.

   Xfig uses transfig to do its file conversions.  Read up on this.  If you are using LaTeX, you should be using Makefile to build your documents.  Since transfig runs from the command line, you can run this from Makefile, and automatically update EPS files for LaTeX, and GIF and PNG files for your website.  Xfig is an adequate drawing program for anything that does not require scale dimensions.  I am addicted to Xfig because of transfig.  

-- 
Howard Gibson 
hgibson-MwcKTmeKVNQ at public.gmane.org
howardg-PadmjKOQAFn3fQ9qLvQP4Q at public.gmane.org 
http://home.eol.ca/~hgibson
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