Drawing schematics for solid state physics research

[pinkfishegg]

Hello,
I'm working on a poster and senior thesis in materials science research and need to draw schematic diagrams of a few objects including:

-a PLD chamber
-Thin films
-XRD
-SEM
-energy diagrams
-a sin wave

I've downloads inkscape and have tried to draw in powerpoint so far. Are there better tools for 3D drawing? Inkscape is great for vector drawing and stuff like that but it's difficult to draw 3D objects and curved line, in particular sin waves (I need to draw photons sometimes.) Any suggestions? I thought about using old CAD programs for thin films.

 

[berkeman]

Hello,
I'm working on a poster and senior thesis in materials science research and need to draw schematic diagrams of a few objects including:

-a PLD chamber
-Thin films
-XRD
-SEM
-energy diagrams
-a sin wave

I've downloads inkscape and have tried to draw in powerpoint so far. Are there better tools for 3D drawing? Inkscape is great for vector drawing and stuff like that but it's difficult to draw 3D objects and curved line, in particular sin waves (I need to draw photons sometimes.) Any suggestions? I thought about using old CAD programs for thin films.

Have you seen drawings/diagrams similar to what you want to make? If so, can you post a couple here? That may help us to figure out what was used.

I'm guessing that Visio may work for what you want, maybe in combination with OrCAD or some other schematic drawing package. Modern packages let you cut and paste things into each other, so you can combine mechanical drawings from CAD packages with schematics and block diagrams, photographs, etc.

 

[pinkfishegg]

pictures

Sure here's some pictures I found. I'm testing for the spin Seebeck effect and making thin films.

 

[pinkfishegg]

more pics

here are some more pics

I drew something like the thin film diagram using powerpoint and it turned out alright. Is there something better though? What do people recommend?

 

[pinkfishegg]

pics

more pics

 

[pinkfishegg]

pics

one last one

 

[berkeman]

Do you have any idea what package was used to draw those? Is there a way to find out? Where did they come from?

The 2-D pics you can draw in Visio fairly easily. The 3-D drawings would take something more like AutoCAD or equivalent drawing package, I would think.Update -- I used Google Images to search for simple 3d drawing software free. That turned up a lot of hits. Maybe try that Google Images search?