Best software for block diagrams?

[photonics]

Hi - I need/want to create reasonably professional block diagrams and wondered if anyone knew of the best software to do this? Free is better than $$ unless the stuff you pay for is loads better.

We are not talking anything amazingly complicated here. I am doing some work with optics and transmission. So if I can stick in lasers, modulators, various types of amplifiers, different types of fiber and receivers etc that would be more than enough. Going forward

I have MATLAB and am told you can do this with simulink, but I have no idea how to do this and want to know if there is something better?

Thanks

 

[donpacino]

are you trying to do anything with these block diagrams, or just present them?

Microsoft Visio is the perfect tool for presenting. Simulink is a computation/simulation tool that happens to present its data in a block diagram.

 

[photonics]

As things stand I have pretty much no interest in running simulations on a computer. My work is/should be done in a lab.

I'll have a look into Visio! Thanks.

 

[donpacino]

As things stand I have pretty much no interest in running simulations on a computer. My work is/should be done in a lab.

Simulation is often more important than actual lab testing...

 

[photonics]

Simulation is often more important than actual lab testing...

I get that. But I don't know how to do it. I'd love to know - but I have no idea.

However - I'll buy this: https://uk.mathworks.com/support/books/book120003.html and have a go at learning. I'm not sure I'm capable though.

 

[donpacino]

I get that. But I don't know how to do it. I'd love to know - but I have no idea.

However - I'll buy this: https://uk.mathworks.com/support/books/book120003.html and have a go at learning. I'm not sure I'm capable though.

Are you a student or a professional?
What type of work are you doing?
What level of education/experience do you have in the field?

 

[photonics]

I'm doing some work related to photonics. I'm a first-year phd student - and have used MATLAB a fair bit, but have never used simulink.

There are people in my office who do a fair amount of simulation type stuff. But I am not one of them. My PhD is meant to be more experimental than theoretical.

I think what I'm trying to do would be hard to simulate. But I don't know unless I learn a bit more about it.

 

[donpacino]

Ok cool. So as a student hopefully your university should give you access to visio. If they do not, ask your professor to buy it for your department (or look for open source versions). baring that you can always use power point (for free with a college email! https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/education/students/default.aspx).

Simulation isn't theoretical, its actually very practical and can be crucial to actually do testing. You want to get a ballpark idea of what will happen, you don't want to just throw a switch and cross your fingers.

Matlab is a great tool for you to learn, although there may be software specific to what you are studying

 

[Windadct]

Visio is generally the goto for process planning and block diagrams, but this is not included in the base Office packages - Review these options

 

[photonics]

Cheers - I use a macbook pro for most of my work. And I've found visio won't work on that. I could get it to run windows - but i don't want to do that so I'll have to find something that is happy with Apple OS. I have a windows based computer in my office. But am really not a fan of it.

I'll look into the options - and do the smart thing and ask my colleagues what they use! Cheers.