Network graphics tools

Wed Mar 22 08:37:59 UTC 2006

Hi Howard,

On Tue, 21 Mar 2006 21:17:44 -0500
"Howard C. Berkowitz" <hcb at gettcomm.com> wrote:

> 
> Much of the enterprise market seems wedded to Visio as their network 
> graphics tool, which locks them into Windows. Personally, I hate both 
> little pictures of equipment and Cisco hockey-puck icons; I much 
> prefer things like rectangles saying "7507 STL-1" or "M160 NYC-3".
> 
> Assuming you use *NIX platforms (including BSD under Mac OS X), what 
> are your preferred tools for network drawings, both for internal and 
> external use?  I'd hate to be driven to Windows only because I need 
> Visio.

I've been using inkscape (http://www.inkscape.org/) a bit recently, and
haven't found it too bad for basic box network drawings. It's native
format is SVG, although make sure you save your working diagrams in the
Inkscape SVG format. If you save it as "normal" SVG, all the objects get
merged into a single one - annoying if you want to go back and edit it
later. I haven't tried it, however there is a probability that Firefox
1.5 can view the .SVGs Inkscape produces natively.

Regards,
Mark.

-- 

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