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SW for drafting 'analog' timing diagrams?

J

Joerg

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hello All,

Is there a simple share/free tool that allows to draw timing diagrams
where some of the wave forms are not digital? For example where some of
them are coming off a simple filter such as an RC?

I don't want to buy something fancy here because I'll most likely need
it only once, for a publication. I could whip up the logic and filters
in SPICE but then the import of its printout into something where I can
add markers would be rather kludgy.

Drawing a nice enough e-function by hand isn't a pretty sight either,
even if I'd abstain from coffee for two days.

Regards, Joerg
 
F

Frank Bemelman

Jan 1, 1970
0
Joerg said:
Hello All,

Is there a simple share/free tool that allows to draw timing diagrams
where some of the wave forms are not digital? For example where some of
them are coming off a simple filter such as an RC?

I don't want to buy something fancy here because I'll most likely need
it only once, for a publication. I could whip up the logic and filters
in SPICE but then the import of its printout into something where I can
add markers would be rather kludgy.

Drawing a nice enough e-function by hand isn't a pretty sight either,
even if I'd abstain from coffee for two days.

Excel spreadsheet? If you don't have excel, download open office.
 
J

Joerg

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hello Frank,
Excel spreadsheet? If you don't have excel, download open office.

That is one option. But when I tried that the last time it resulted in
waveforms that were a bit jagged at the edges. Ok for a module spec but
not quite for a publication.

In the old days we had DOS programs that could draw really nice timing
diagrams. They could plot finite transition times but they'd fail when
you wanted to illustrate things such as a capacitive load.

Regards, Joerg
 
G

Genome

Jan 1, 1970
0
Joerg said:
Hello Frank,


That is one option. But when I tried that the last time it resulted in
waveforms that were a bit jagged at the edges. Ok for a module spec but
not quite for a publication.

In the old days we had DOS programs that could draw really nice timing
diagrams. They could plot finite transition times but they'd fail when
you wanted to illustrate things such as a capacitive load.

Regards, Joerg

I'd buy a HDTV.

DNA
 
R

Rich Grise

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hello All,

Is there a simple share/free tool that allows to draw timing diagrams
where some of the wave forms are not digital? For example where some of
them are coming off a simple filter such as an RC?

I don't want to buy something fancy here because I'll most likely need
it only once, for a publication. I could whip up the logic and filters
in SPICE but then the import of its printout into something where I can
add markers would be rather kludgy.

Not necessarily - what file format(s) can it output? With a decent paint
program, like Paint Shop Pro 4, http://www.neodruid.net/psp412.exe
you can do some pretty snazzy illustrating. And, you can do a screen
capture if you don't like your spice output file format(s). :)

Heck, export some graphics, put them on a website or in a.b.s.e,
and I'll see what I can do with them, if you'd like.

Good Luck!
Rich
 
J

Joerg

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hello Rich,
Not necessarily - what file format(s) can it output? With a decent paint
program, like Paint Shop Pro 4, http://www.neodruid.net/psp412.exe
you can do some pretty snazzy illustrating. And, you can do a screen
capture if you don't like your spice output file format(s). :)

Oh, you can get a bitmap. Things is, to create really equidistant
rastering in Paint can be a pain.

Heck, export some graphics, put them on a website or in a.b.s.e,
and I'll see what I can do with them, if you'd like.

Maybe I'll just do that. But I'll experiment for myself a little. Just a
matter of pride, ya know...

Regards, Joerg
 
Q

qrk

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hello All,

Is there a simple share/free tool that allows to draw timing diagrams
where some of the wave forms are not digital? For example where some of
them are coming off a simple filter such as an RC?

I don't want to buy something fancy here because I'll most likely need
it only once, for a publication. I could whip up the logic and filters
in SPICE but then the import of its printout into something where I can
add markers would be rather kludgy.

Drawing a nice enough e-function by hand isn't a pretty sight either,
even if I'd abstain from coffee for two days.

Regards, Joerg

I've been using Gnuplot for making pretty graphs for reports and
helping out a colleague with graphs in his book. If you can describe
your waveforms as equations and/or table data, you can make some
pretty spiffy graphs. Allows many types of outputs such as terminal
display, EMF, Postscript, PNG, HPGL, and lots more. If you decide to
go this route, I have a Windoze batch file that may be of interest if
you need to deal with many plots.

http://www.gnuplot.info/
Runs on a variety of operating systems
 
J

Joerg

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hello Mark,
I've been using Gnuplot for making pretty graphs for reports and
helping out a colleague with graphs in his book. If you can describe
your waveforms as equations and/or table data, you can make some
pretty spiffy graphs. Allows many types of outputs such as terminal
display, EMF, Postscript, PNG, HPGL, and lots more. If you decide to
go this route, I have a Windoze batch file that may be of interest if
you need to deal with many plots.

http://www.gnuplot.info/
Runs on a variety of operating systems

Thanks for the hint. I read the docs a bit and it seems to be strictly
command line driven. I like that but this means a long learning curve.
But I did find that one fellow newsgroup poster from Europe was a
contributor. Interesting.

Regards, Joerg
 
Q

qrk

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hello Mark,


Thanks for the hint. I read the docs a bit and it seems to be strictly
command line driven. I like that but this means a long learning curve.
But I did find that one fellow newsgroup poster from Europe was a
contributor. Interesting.

Regards, Joerg

Another thought is Matlab or some other math program with nice
graphing features.

You can create a simple Gnuplot graph in a couple minutes after
installing the program. It took me many hours/days to figure out all
ways to control the damn plotting, annotation and formatting. I have a
text editor open and just drag and drop the file from Explorer on the
Gnuplot window for instant gratification. Once you figure this program
out, you will find many uses like doing a GPIB dump and plotting the
results, perhaps with some smoothing, all via a batch file. For
documentation, I like using EMF files since they scale nicely in word
processors and PDF documents.

A simple example showing some of the basic features:

# Simple Gnuplot example
reset
set term windows "Arial" 10
set grid
set xtics 90
set style line 1 lt 8 lw 2
set xrange [0:360]
set yrange [-10:10]
set dummy angle
plot tan(angle*pi/180.0) linestyle 1
 
J

Joerg

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hello Mark,

You can create a simple Gnuplot graph in a couple minutes after
installing the program. It took me many hours/days to figure out all
ways to control the damn plotting, annotation and formatting. I have a
text editor open and just drag and drop the file from Explorer on the
Gnuplot window for instant gratification. Once you figure this program
out, you will find many uses like doing a GPIB dump and plotting the
results, perhaps with some smoothing, all via a batch file. For
documentation, I like using EMF files since they scale nicely in word
processors and PDF documents.

GPIB dump? Now that would be cool. Most of the lab gear only works with
these dreaded HP inkjets, other gear dumps raw data without any printer
support.

Sometimes I cheat and snap a screen picture with the digital camera. But
a GPIB dump sure would look nicer.

Regards, Joerg
 
J

Joel Kolstad

Jan 1, 1970
0
Joerg said:
GPIB dump? Now that would be cool. Most of the lab gear only works with
these dreaded HP inkjets, other gear dumps raw data without any printer
support.

Are you aware of this piece of free software? -->
http://www.speakeasy.org/~jmiles1/ke5fx/gpib/7470.htm

It's great... we use it with an old 8753C network analyzer and a few spectrum
analyzers to get screen dumps into 'nice' documentation (Word files).
 

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