Hi,

I'd like topoint out an often overlooked tool, graphviz (dot):

 	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphviz

It's included in SL:

 	graphviz.x86_64

It is specifically for generating figures from graphs (lattices) specified 
in a very simple language (dot).

It's not a general purpose tool, but it can save a lot of time if you find 
yourself generating a lot of figures involving graphs/lattices.

Cheers,

Ron

PS - Someone mentioned using make for documents. I use make/git for my 
documents as well. It's nice to be able to edit a dot file, type "make", 
and have the graphics as well as the document rebuilt. Keeping documents 
in a git repository with all of the history is incredibly useful.

-- 
Goodhart's Law: A metric used to regulate an activity ceases to be a useful metric.

On Thu, 6 Apr 2017, Andrew C Aitchison wrote:

> Date: Thu, 6 Apr 2017 07:57:31 +0100
> From: Andrew C Aitchison <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Cc: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Book/Paper technical illustrations - inkscape?
> 
> On Wed, 5 Apr 2017, Keith Lofstrom wrote:
>
>>  I am considering Inkscape as a technical illustration
>>  tool for latex documents (papers and book chapters).
>>  Suggestions for better tools?
>
> Inkscape would be my first choice, but I'd also consider
> xfig	(included in SL6; for SL7 you may need to get it from epel)
> dia	www.gnome.org/projects/dia
> Zirkel / CaR (Compass and ruler)
> 	 http://car.rene-grothmann.de/
>
> One interesting feature of dia is that it can be used
> to generate sql schema.
>
>
> -- 
> Andrew C Aitchison		Cambridge, UK
>
>