This is a read-only archive of the inkscapeforum.com site. You can search for info here or post new questions and comments at Hello to all. I have just installed Inkscape on my laptop. My only reason for using it is to produce accurate professional geometric diagrams / sketches for publications in scientific academic journals. My question is simple: as someone who knows nothing about inkscape (or any other graphic design packages) how long would it take for me to produce reasonably simple geometric diagrams and merge them with latex? (Think something like circles with polygons inside, angles, lengths defined / labelled, some vectors, etc).
I realise there's no single answer, but I would appreciate a ball park figure. I am pushed for time, so I cannot afford to squander days on something an experienced Inkscape user could probably do within minutes. So the alternative would be to find someone in my city (London) who is willing to give me instructions for an hour or two (for a fee, of course). This leads me to my second question, how to find someone who is experienced with both inkscape and latex?
Thank you for all the replies!
How long to get to grips with Inkscape to produce simple professional geometric diagrams?
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Intrepid V
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Thu Jul 28, 2016 4:30 am
Re: How long to get to grips with Inkscape to produce simple professional geometric diagrams?
Welcome aboard!
Can't say much about latex as I had only bad experiences with it but for the rest.
By a few hours you can go through all the options the program can give you, however without experience you won't know which tools to use or how you can use them effectively.
After a day of editing you can get the "grasp" but not the hotkeys. By a week of daily use for hours you can get a good basic knowledge on how things are going in practice.
Would say it's just practicing after.
Like I'd estimate it a month time for anyone coming from illustrator getting used to the bit different concept of the workflow, hotkeys etc.
Can't say much about latex as I had only bad experiences with it but for the rest.
By a few hours you can go through all the options the program can give you, however without experience you won't know which tools to use or how you can use them effectively.
After a day of editing you can get the "grasp" but not the hotkeys. By a week of daily use for hours you can get a good basic knowledge on how things are going in practice.
Would say it's just practicing after.
Like I'd estimate it a month time for anyone coming from illustrator getting used to the bit different concept of the workflow, hotkeys etc.
Re: How long to get to grips with Inkscape to produce simple professional geometric diagrams?
I agree with Lazur, but I have to ask, are you sure Inkscape is the right tool for what you want to draw?
For the looks of it, you'll be drawing more technical diagrams and less artistic graphics. Do you have any examples of the type of things you plan on drawing? What I *feel* is that you would be better off with some CAD software perhaps? Inkscape doesn't have features specifically designed for lengths, angles and labels or in general anything that has real world dimensions.
Not that you can't do it, but it all done by hand, if you put a label on something, and you move that something, the label won't follow it, etc.
For the looks of it, you'll be drawing more technical diagrams and less artistic graphics. Do you have any examples of the type of things you plan on drawing? What I *feel* is that you would be better off with some CAD software perhaps? Inkscape doesn't have features specifically designed for lengths, angles and labels or in general anything that has real world dimensions.
Not that you can't do it, but it all done by hand, if you put a label on something, and you move that something, the label won't follow it, etc.