After Friday's post on using Microsoft Visio for graphing knitting patterns I received some questions:

What's Visio?

Microsoft Visio is a professional level drafting/drawing program - something I've co-opted into serving as a pattern development tool, not something that was designed for that purpose. It's main use is technical and scientific illustration - Gantt charts, flow process models, flowcharts, conceptual diagrams, infrastructure diagrams, business graphics, organization charts and the like. For example, network planners use it to lay out routing diagrams for offices, as it not only can handle a dimensioned architectural drawing, but it can also keep count of the networking hardware placed on the drawing, producing a "need to buy" list as the plan progresses.

In my work life, I'm a proposal writer working in engineering and telecommunications companies. I use Visio extensively to do? technical illustration and project planning. Visio isn't the sort of thing that most people have lying around the house, but because I have worked as a consultant I have had to buy my own copy. I use Visio Pro. Visio Standard (the entry level version without some of the industry-specific bells and whistles) is about $200.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX010857981033.aspx

What's a stencil?? Can I use these with other programs?

One feature of Visio (both versions) is the ability to establish a collection of standard shapes, and call that collection up when needed. These collections are called stencils. I created a set of stencils for Visio that contain knitting stitch and graphing symbols. I attach the stencil to the active drawing, and then using all of Visio's drafting features - draw up my chart.

Visio stencils are unique to that program, and cannot be used with others. There may be (emphasis on uncertainty here) one other program that can import them, but I do not own that program and have not tried it. It's called SmartDraw, and the suite edition that includes templates sells for just under $300. It purports to import Visio output, but there's nothing there that says it takes the stencils directly. I suspect that you'd need to take the sample Visio drawing I include in my template set, then use it to create a new SmartDraw symbol library. As far as lower cost/hobbyist targeted programs with the same functionality - I don't know of any that import Visio stencils. Please chime in if you do.

Can you do everything in Visio that dedicated programs like Aran Paint or Stitch and Motif Maker do?

No. I'm NOT using a program that knows the slightest thing about knitting, or that is optimized for this sort of thing. There are no limits that keep me from using impossible combos of stitches, and no tools that let me do things like replace all the red stitches with pink stitches everywhere in the active document. There's no blank canvas that can be flood filled by a background stitch. Instead I have to build my diagrams stitch by stitch, adding my stitchs (or groups of stitches) like a kid laying out a doll's dance floor of alphabet blocks.

What I do have is an unlimited size and shape canvas on which to work; and the ability to group, layer, copy/paste, rotate and reflect my custom symbols as needed. If I'm doing colorwork, I have an infinitude of possibilities, and even do color matching by Pantone or other color codification system. I can make up custom symbols on the fly, adding to my library as I go along and am not limited to the symbols present in a knitting font package (in fact, I don't even bother with one). I can also export my designs to all standard web graphics formats, or paste them into other documents as desired.

Is Visio easy to use?

While large parts of the thing would be intuitive to anyone familiar with other drawing programs, Visio isn't the easiest program to learn if you've never used any drafting program before. There are lots of inexpensive training courses out there, some web-based, and some at local community colleges. Or if you're adventurous you can do what I did - just start monkeying around with the thing.

Can I do the same thing with other drawing programs?

I'm pretty sure you can, although not every drawing program works in exactly the same way. ? In ages past, I co-opted Aldus Superpaint (on my late lamented Mac) for doing stitching and knitting diagrams. That one was a hybrid drawing/drafting program. I set up a series of ground textures that corresponded to filled and unfilled grid squares (some with specific symbols in them). Then I created a paintbrush the same size as one grid square. By selecting the background fills and using the paint brush as a stamper, I "daubed out" my charts. This is how I did all of the charted illustrations in The New Carolingian Modelbook.?

I also have convinced Canvas to serve as a knitting/stitching design aide, but that was a bit more painful. The version of Canvas I used did not have a robust stencil capability. You could make libraries of symbols, but they weren't as accessible as in Visio. I ended up making one document with reference copies of my symbols. Then in a new document I established a snap-to grid equal to the size of a stitch square, and copied/pasted the symbols from my library document into my new design. It worked, but it was cumbersome.

I also know that some people use non-drawing programs for this purpose. Others have written quite extensively about creative adaptation of Microsoft Excel and other spreadsheets (and even MS Word) as stitch chart creation programs.

If you've smacked another drawing program around for this purpose and have some hints to share with others please feel free to add your comments to this pile.