Drawing Graphics on a JPG

**fester225** · May 13th, 2012

I have a work project which requires I do some CAD-like drawing over the top of a JPG picture.

What programs should I be using?

**kurja** · May 14th, 2012

use dragshift or other cad program to make the drawing then marge the two in gimp?

what's cad-like? what specific requirements are there for the final image?

**fester225** · May 14th, 2012

Originally Posted by kurja

use dragshift or other cad program to make the drawing then marge the two in gimp?

what's cad-like? what specific requirements are there for the final image?

CAD is Computer Aided Drafting.

What I'm looking for is the ability to draw 2 circular arrows to indicate knobs which have to be turned clock-wise, and some numbers to indicate which buttons have to pressed in what order. This has to be done over the JPG picture I have.

**kurja** · May 14th, 2012

Yes "CAD" stands for Computer Assisted/Aided Design/Drafting, I meant to ask what these "cad-like drawings" you spoke of might be. Arrows and numbers it is, then.

Tried libreoffice draw yet? You can import the jpg picture in it, then just add the arrows and whatnots over it, libreoffice has a bunch of different arrow styles that you can use. It also keeps the arrows and texts that you add as separate entities so you can adjust them later.

Just the quick solution that sprang to mind first... There are a million way to do this, if it's a one off thing and doesn't need to be very presentable just draw on picture in gimp or whatever, I can't really give much better advice without knowing exactly what, and for what kind of use, you want to produce.

Attached a screenshot from libreoffice, background image is just another random screenshot pic.

**mcduck** · May 15th, 2012

Inkscape is an excellent vector graphics application, definitely on par with the best commercial ones. And it allows you to import a pixmap image into your vector drawing.

install Inkscape
http://inkscape.org/

**dferriman** · May 16th, 2012

Try FreeCAD:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/free-cad/

It's in Beta, but so's lots of stuff

Also, found this:

http://www.openscad.org/

Not too sure about it, but worth checking out.

**kurja** · May 16th, 2012

wouldn't a real cad program be "a little" over the top, when he needs to draw two arrows and a couple numbers...

**dferriman** · May 17th, 2012

Originally Posted by kurja

wouldn't a real cad program be "a little" over the top, when he needs to draw two arrows and a couple numbers...

it's what he asked for.

**kurja** · May 18th, 2012

Originally Posted by dferriman

it's what he asked for.

except it wasn't, he asked for

some CAD-like drawing

and in case of drawing two arrows it seems probable that other, lighter alternatives just might suffice for the job.

**kurja** · May 18th, 2012

Originally Posted by fester225

CAD is Computer Aided Drafting.

What I'm looking for is the ability to draw 2 circular arrows to indicate knobs which have to be turned clock-wise, and some numbers to indicate which buttons have to pressed in what order. This has to be done over the JPG picture I have.

Did you find a way to do what you needed?