Diagramming Software

[Noegenesis]

Do any of you know of a diagramming software that can produce the kind of professional quality diagrams/models one sees in scholarly journals?

 

Thanks!

[33andathirdRPM]

There are LaTeX libraries that can generate all types of artwork, if you're familiar with creating documents with LaTeX.

[Eigen]

Adobe Illustrator (and the rest of the CS series) are what I see used a lot. 

 

You can even use them to render data from non-graphical statistics programs. 

 

They produce absolutely top quality figures, but have a pretty steep learning curve, and can be expensive if you can't get them through your department. 

[Armadilla]

I recently got addicted to Tableau and then my licence was over so all the fun ended

[Noegenesis]

Thanks for all the suggestions. Has anyone had luck with STELLA? Just noticed it on our university's computers.

[Aricroot]

I am wondering if anyone has taken any Adobe Illustrator (or other relevant software) courses online that they would recommend? I am interested in learning how to use this software to create scientific diagrams. Thanks! 

[Eigen]

I can't really see the point in taking a course on it. Just spend some time with the program and google. And you can figure out how to do what you need.

[TakeruK]

Our school's grad student association offered a 2-hour workshop/tutorial on basics of Adobe Illustrator. If you're completely new, then something like this might be more helpful as an introduction before messing around with the program / googling. It was pretty easy for us to organize: 1) find a student (or some other person) willing to do this for free or a small honorarium, 2) provide snacks, 3) book a room, 4) advertise! We have a budget specifically for these types of workshops/tutorials (others in our series include python, MATLAB, Unix, calculus boot camp, etc.). The cost was about $200 for us.

 

If you don't have the same budget though, you can skip the snacks and find a volunteer and do it for pretty much free. Maybe this is the kind of thing you can pitch to your own student organization? Or, if they don't generally do this type of thing, you can maybe organize an initial small workshop first, open signups, run it, and use that successful event as proof that this type of thing is both in demand and relevant to graduate student interests to apply for funding to do more of these workshops (either through the student association, through the school, or some other group).

[Aricroot]

Thank you for the feedback and suggestions, much appreciated!