[Lowfer] Schematics

[Lyle Koehler]

A quick and easy way to create schematics is with a pencil and paper, a
scanner and a graphics program. I highly recommend the freeware IrfanView
software; originally an image viewer but now it does much more. It can
acquire images from a scanner, edit them and save them in a variety of
formats. And it doesn't have all the excess baggage of other graphics
programs.

For prettier drawings, I use the schematic capture portion of the MicroSim
DesignLab demo. Unfortunately it has been discontinued and you can't get the
free demo CD any more. But there are several other free demos of schematic
entry programs out there; at the moment I don't have the URLs handy. Some of
the software may allow you to save the schematics directly as GIF or JPG
files. DesignLab doesn't, but I just use alt-printscreen to capture the
whole window to the clipboard, go into IrfanView and hit ctrl-V (paste),
crop the image, resize if necessary, reduce the color depth to black and
white (if appropriate), and save it as a GIF or JPG file. Sounds like a lot
of steps, but it's faster than trying to describe a circuit in words.

Lyle, K0LR