New Forum section...Non-Visio Discussions?

[MilesT]

Hi

How about a new forum section for discussions about tools and diagrams out of a Visio context, especially where there is a need to convert stuff to or from Visio, or "compare and contrast" posts

Examples that are worth discussing...

• Libreoffice/Openoffice Draw (which now has Visio file format support)
• "Cloud" apps such as Gliffy, Lucidchart (which have some Visio roundtrip capability).  I particularly like the simple and clean UI of Gliffy for initial fleshing out of what a complex diagram should look like collaboratively (and for embedding into Confluence--clickable org charts for example), although I'm told that Lucidchart can roundtrip to Visio better and can do more complex diagrams
• Google Apps/Drive
• Visio support in Atlassian Confluence
• Omnigraffle
• Micrografix
• How to "fake" Visio type diagrams in presentations and documents if you don't have Visio or need to collaborate with someone who doesn't
• Maybe also a section somewhere to discuss difference between Visio on Windows locally and Office365

[Yacine]

Hi Miles,I think that there are already too much sections in the forum.I (and probably most of the other users) use the start page to watch the latest posts. I don't enter the individual sections to look for posts.Same for the search function. It performs at the highest forum level.So the sections are in my opinion in this particular forum more or less useless.

[wapperdude]

The focus of this forum is primarily Visio centric. It geared torward Visio users and Visio woes.  Generally, the contributors are Visio knowledgeable, and then whatever else they may have been exposed to.  I would think issues related to other apps / developments come up on a per need basis as directly applies to visio.  Other issues would seem best handled in the appropriate, alternative forums.

Wapperdude

[Don.Brady]

Even if you use only visio some problems may be when you need to collaborate on drawings with colleagues who don`t have it installed on their desktops. So I`d support adding other sections and especially section "visio alternatives".

[vojo]

IMHO, it appears the only real alternatives are smartdraw and edraw.   The rest of them are really wanna bes
- sketchup is only good to draw 3D shapes (and has an obtuse UI) - frankly a mess
- Open office Draw just doesn't work for anything serious and visio importer is a joke
- Most have said that Lucid has a long way to go RE functionality to be a serious option
- Dia is limited
- Sure, autocad is good for drawing!!!
- Adobe seems pretty rich drawing approach.
- Freecad is no longer being actively supported (and really doesn't have functionality)
- blender nice for artistic stuff (much much easier to use than Sketchup)
- inkscape is for drawing...could not find a lot intelligence built in

So depending what you are doing, have fun

[Nikolay]

Isn't it a bit too early to start digging a Visio grave? Or you think it might be about time?

[Visio Guy]

I totally missed this thread, but I have to admit, there were two reasons I chose "visguy.com" and not "visioguy.com"

1. visioguy.com was already taken (but never used!)
2. I thought I could expand the "vis" beyond Visio at some point in the future.

There are a lot of interesting and pertinent topics that are technically non-Visio, but related to Visio. Some come to mind:

- Visio competitors and alternatives (boooo!)
- Visio adjacent usage (CAD, SVG, web-exporty stuff)
- "Better tool for the job" discussions, when users aren't sure if Visio is right. For example, I think a few of the online Visio knock-offs might be better for teams that have fairly simple and targeted diagram needs. Although who knows what MS is cooking up for the online diagramming space themselves...
- Tools that can help you with Visio. For example Inkscape and text outlines:
  Text Outlines in Visio
  http://www.visguy.com/2015/03/01/text-outlines-in-visio/

Maybe I'll add that new section!

[vojo]

Maybe couch this as "reviews and comparisons"

IMHO, while I think many of these are not good
(got to wonder what drugs were involved with the sketchup UI)
I am sure there are some redeeming qualities in each worth noting.
(or at least, state the obvious of "tool X is for drawing only").

my 2 cents

[Yacine]

Add 2 cents from me, so we get 4 .

I don't think that a section for non visio software makes sense because:
- the topics posted on Visguy are highly specialized in Visio and so are its members. Other Software products may be commented and discussed, but the contributions are mostly dilettantish - obviously - we are Visio specialists. There are other forums dealing with Visio's "competitors. The quality of the contributions will be higher there.
- creating a section for this relatively small problem will end up in a neglected section. There are some of them in this forum.
- As far as finding topics related to this subject, I'd propose to tag the topics. SMF has at least one tool to do so: http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/?mod=579