Is there a current successor to MacDraw?

9 posts were split to a new topic: Pagemaker nostalgia

I remember MacDraw. When I need to do something of that nature now I use the Draw program in LibreOffice. It costs you nothing unless you donate to it.

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Depending on what you want to do, this may be worth investigating: RealCADD - 2D CAD Software There is more information available here: RealCADD 2D Computer Aided Drawing Program

I didn’t notice that. I had tried it for a book project, it worked well enough that I paid for a full license to finish the job, then thought I had been hit by an upgrade requirement. I’ll have to pay more attention. It’s not software I use regularly, and Libre Draw might fill my needs

How on earth do you get any useful vector drawing from PowerPoint these days. Once upon a time it did have what were useful 3D graphics for the time, but lately I have found it unusable even for when I want old-style PowerPoint drawings. Do the hide the usable graphics somewhere?

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I used to draw technical drawings and when MacDraw came out I used it extensively.

My company transitioned to Windows and as MacDraw faded away I started to use Visio. Very cool the way you could “glue” objects together.

Now however, you can’t beat draw.io. It’s a cloud based web app. Its modeled after Visio but everything is easier than Visio. It a better Visio and its free.

Point your browser to draw.io and you will be drawing in less than a minute. Great responsive UI. Works in any browser. Even Safari on my 2012 MBA.

I like GrowlyDraw and use it whenever I need to create vector graphics.

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I notice that Canva also has a regular MacOS app, so it’s not just on the web. Does anyone have experience of how good the free version is, since I’m not sure I can justify a subscription for the amount I am likely to use it. Also, how does it compares to the old Canvas?

Referent for “it” is ambiguous. If you mean “Canva”, this discussion is the first place I have heard of it. I’ve not investigated it.

Current Canvas X Draw is not particularly different from Canvas 3.5 for the Mac (now that’s ‘old’ Canvas), at least from the User Interface. The newer version supports the latest Apple Silicon, macOS and is 64bit.

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Intaglio used to be a good option but has sadly disappeared. Grafio is another possibility which supports Mac & iPad (on the app stores). I was using OmniGraffle but it has some unpleasant behaviours when rotating small features - an acknowledged bug that has never been fixed, so I can’t trust it anymore for new work. Like others here I am using Pages or Numbers for quite a lot of basic vector drawing and it’s not a bad environment at all unless you need to export to other applications. There are also some low-end CAD packages for the Mac which might be suitable like MacDraft.

Curio has pretty good drawing tools and is fantastic in many other ways. Support is superb. I use it very heavily for diagramming, mind mapping and brainstorming.

You can also download draw.io (now called diagrams.net) as an application and use it offline.
https://www.diagrams.net/

FYI their business model (explained on their About page) is explicitly pro-privacy, anti-customer lock-in. Very unusual. They make their money solely from selling their integration with Atlassian.

The tool itself is solid and worthwhile, if unpolished in places. Importing other formats is a bit hit of miss, the diagrams always seem to need adjusting afterwards. And some features are hard to discover. But still, thumbs up from me.

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@livfoss
I also remember MacDraw (and probably have a very old Mac that still runs it…).

I recently needed to draw a simple network diagram (boxes, lines, a cloud, some text, etc) and came across diagrams.net. It can be used entirely online, or there’s a app than can be downloaded. I used the online version, and was quite impressed with what can be accomplished with HTML5, Javascript and other web magic. There’s a bit of a learning curve, but I found a playlist of tutorial videos on YouTube that are helpful.

Diagrams created can be saved (and shared) on Google Drive and other cloud-based repositories.

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There are lots of choices that no one has mentioned:

Amadine ($30)

CanvasXDraw ($299)

Growly Draw (free)

Affinity Designer ($70)

will open both .eps and .ai files from Adobe Illustrator.

Graphic for Mac ($30) (formerly iDraw)

EazyDraw ($95)

DrawBerry (free, donation requested)
http://raphaelbost.free.fr/DrawBerry.html
https://launchpad.net/drawberry

Sketch ($9/month)

SketchBook Pro ($20)

My Draw ($69)

Inkscape (free, donation requested)

ZeusDraw ($90)

OmniGraffle/Pro ($150)

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Actually several of these have been mentioned already. My original post was seeking something simple for vector drawing on a Mac. You will remember that the original MacDraw was free, and my requirement was for something of limited functionality for occasional use, so not something I would pay a lot for. So in my particular case, all the apps over $50 are out, as are all using a subscription model. I have a feeling that most people who’ve taken part in this conversation are of a similar opinion, but it may be just a feeling.

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That’s a nice summary, Randy. Thanks.

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I understood what you were looking for, which is why I left out all of the professional tools that cost well over $100. As far as my list containing exactly what you want…I can only point out what exists and hope that after you check out the many options, one of them can somehow be pressed into service to meet your needs.

If you are on a limited budget, I have a Web page that offers a very extensive list of free software for the Macintosh:

Free Macintosh Software
http://www.macattorney.com/free.html

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One more for the list of graphics programs, and it might be just what Graham is looking for:
Scapple - Scapple | Literature & Latte
I have not used it, but it looks much like OmniGraffle, only easier and cheaper. One-time price $21, from the same developer as Scrivener.

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Thanks - I’d never heard of Scapple, although I know people who love Scrivener.

Had a look at the video, which explains what it is. I don’t know the proper term for this type of app, but it’s a kind of brainstorming thing, where you can put down notes - text and graphics - about some topic you’re working on, and then connect them in a rich variety of ways. It looks powerful and helpful, although it’s really not much like MacDraw. So my (admittedly superficial) judgement, is “very nice app, which I am planning to explore more, but not as a successor to MacDraw.”

Thanks. Sorry if I seemed grumpy in my previous respons

Hi all. This has been a very interesting discussion and it’s taught me a lot. One general observation is that many of the publishers of these apps seem to want to emphasise the complexity of their app’s functions while often simultaneously claiming a simple interface. They often give samples that look like the work of full-time graphic designers producing magazine or advertising illustrations (Amandine is such a one - I have no criticism of the app, just the way it’s presented). For me, this is not a positive selling point - on the contrary! I am almost looking for a reassuring list of things an app can’t do!

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It was nice of Kate to point out Scapple, but it’s a “mind-mapping” app (i.e. it allows you to draw flow charts), not a general drawing application.

You can often do mind-mapping with a drawing app, but usually you can only do mind-mapping, and very little, if any, general drawing with a mind-mapping application.

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