arclight on Nostr: So I have a need to draw basic 2D engineering "cartoons", diagrams halfway between ...
So I have a need to draw basic 2D engineering "cartoons", diagrams halfway between CAD and Inkscape/Illustrator. Something like this figure. 3D, color, and interactivity are not necessary; this is purely for PDF and print applications. Ideally I'd like standalone code, no web service, no subscription. Open source would be great; I'd pay if it was a reasonable price and standalone (e.g. not Adobe or Fusion360).
What I have looked at: Paint.net (too paint-y - surprise!), Inkscape, tikz (would rather draw than write code). CAD is overkill; I'm not drafting, I'm illustrating. Paint.net comes very close but it's still a paint program and not a very good fit; it sucks the least of what I've tried.
I'm limited to Windows and Linux (no budget/desire for a Mac). Imagine it's sometime between 1975 and 1998 and you're trying to illustrate an engineering text on heat transfer or HVAC using clear black-and-white line drawings. I'm looking for something that lets me do that and not a ton else.
I'm not sure such a thing exists, even before you put my no-web, noi-subscription, no-Mac constraints on the problem. :/
Published at
2025-03-11 20:51:43 UTCEvent JSON
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