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View Full Version : best mac based drawing program??

thegelding
2004-05-27, 18:14
what has taken the place of clarisdraw??

have a doc here who used clarisdraw quite a bit...he is now on os x and needs a nice drawing program for slides and talks that can be imported into both word and powerpoint docs

thanks

g
pscates2.0
2004-05-27, 20:31
There's this app I keep seeing advertised in Macworld, called EazyDraw (http://www.eazydraw.com). The ad shows a very Clint Eastwood-looking character (in full spaghetti Western mode) saying "what are you waitin' for, DRAW!". Know the one I'm talking about?

:D

It's OS X-native and seems to be not too complex, not too limited.

Has a free download demo, so would be easy for him to give it a "no strings" try?

I'm gonna download the demo and play around with it...
thegelding
2004-05-28, 11:22
did you play with it yet?? i am forwarding the demo to the doc...will see if he likes it

g
Geokty
2004-08-24, 17:44
:confused: Have a doc here too who created ClarisDraw files in the oh so distant past...the late 90's, and now we can't open the files with anything. (somebody didn't keep his old program) Any ideas? Any idea of the type and creator for ClarisDraw files? Thanks!
k squared
2004-08-24, 20:20
What kind of drawings does he create? A little more descriptive information can help us recommend additional applications. Perhaps Keynote would be enough?
curiousuburb
2004-08-24, 21:28
:confused: Have a doc here too who created ClarisDraw files in the oh so distant past...the late 90's, and now we can't open the files with anything. (somebody didn't keep his old program) Any ideas? Any idea of the type and creator for ClarisDraw files? Thanks!

Appleworks should open almost anything from it's legacy incarnation, Clarisworks.
curiousuburb
2004-08-24, 21:30
Appleworks also has a (somewhat limited) paint program evolved from it's days as Claris, so he may get the extra bonus of compatibility/familiarity (depending on how old his Claris experience was).
FFL
2004-08-24, 23:48
Appleworks should open almost anything from it's legacy incarnation, Clarisworks.You may need MacLink Plus translators to open ClarisDRAW documents, though.
Geokty
2004-08-25, 13:57
Thanks gang. Sort of what I expected. We don't have any of those newer programs so unless he wants to buy one we're screwed. Did try MacLinkPlus and it won't even recognize the files. Tried every program under the sun (Canvas, Corel, Illus., etc...) to no avail. We're Adobe Illustrator-centric these days so I can't picture he'll buy Appleworks. I guess if the figures were important he would. Muchas gracias for your ideas. :)
Escher
2004-08-26, 09:03
:confused: Have a doc here too who created ClarisDraw files in the oh so distant past...the late 90's, and now we can't open the files with anything.

Geokty: I think your best bet would be to buy a Mac of that generation off eBay (or even at the local junk yard) and make sure it has ClarisDraw pre-loaded. Open the files in ClarisDraw, where they were created, export them to somthing that Illustrator will be able to import, and transfer them via Ethernet. I've kept my 1994 vintage PowerBook 520c just for that purpose (although it's on loan to a cousin in France right now).

Escher
brianlewis
2004-09-09, 21:23
Any ideas? Any idea of the type and creator for ClarisDraw files? Thanks!

Try Type = dDrw and Creator = CDrw
brianlewis
2004-09-09, 21:24
Try Type = dDrw and Creator = CDrw
BuonRotto
2004-09-10, 00:14
Tried Create (www.stone.com/Create/Create.html)? I imagine it would be nice to have the option to draw up something and save out as a PDF, publish to web, print it outright, or drag from the Image Well directly into Word or PowerPoint.

Oh, I just read the rest of the thread. One thing to try, however very laborious, is to force TextEdit to open the ClarisWorks files. You might be able to extract text at least if that's relevant, though it doesn't sound like it. :\
StevesMom
2004-09-10, 05:53
I use OmniGraffle Pro, which I absolutely love. Haven't found anything I do in Visio on the PC that I also can't do in Graffle, and Graffle both reads and writes Visio documents in XML format.

SM.
kscherer
2004-09-11, 21:06
There is an older program from Futurewave called Smartsketch that was absolutely wonderful and easy to use. I still use it in Classic mode to work on various projects that have been in the works for years. The company was bought out by Macromedia and the code was rolled into Flash. Flash, itself, is an incredibly simple drawing program if you don't get involved in all of its more powerful tools. Flash is expensive, though.

There are several websites out there that support databases of old Mac programs and likely have free, downloadable copies of such oldies as ClarisDraw.

However, all things considered, I could probably arrange for you to get a copy of SmartSketch. There isn't an easier-to-use drawing app on the planet!