Call for OmniGraffle stencil requests
 

(shamelessly re-posted from the blog, as we're aware that not everyone reads that particular publication)

You OmniGraffle fans probably already know about [URL="http://graffletopia.com/"]Graffletopia[/URL], which hosts a tons of cool stencils for your downloading pleasure. We’ve also got quite a few linked from the OmniGraffle [URL="http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnigraffle/extras/"]extras page[/URL], and of course it’s super easy to make your own stencils by selecting New Stencil from the Stencils menu and dragging in images.

Currently we aren’t including very many ready-made stencils in the app itself, though, so we’re going to be working on adding more Omni-created stencils to Graffle’s built-in library of objects (and updating a few of the existing ones).

Here’s where you can help: what sorts of image collections would you like to see in the app? I am personally voting for a Macworld booth layout stencil (complete with $100-per-day rented trash can!), some cool photo borders, and maybe some DVD/DVR/remote icons (so when my in-laws visit we can create a foolproof graphical set of instructions to help them operate the television without accidentally resetting everything to Spanish, adding a season recording of “Deal Or No Deal?”, and turning the screen magenta), but I figure you guys might have some ideas that are even MORE useful.

Post your stencil requests in this thread, and thanks for helping us out!

I created a houseplan layout image for use in Indigo. It was rather a pain because there aren't any stencils for a house layout, such as walls, windows, doors. stairs, built-in appliances, light fixtures, etc.

I found some stencils that sorta had some furniture, bits and pieces here and there. So I had to draw walls by hand using rectangles. Total pain.

Not the type of things a pro would use for designing houses with dimensions, just some basic stuff to draw a basic houseplan layout.

Might want to try [URL="http://graffletopia.com/stencils/235"]this one[/URL] at Graffletopia.

Is this new? I couldn't find anything like that back when I needed it. I see it only has 726 downloads, so it must be pretty recent.

Yeah, it got put it together and uploaded very recently.

How about a better concept map (not mind map) stencil.

Decision Tree stencil?
 

How about a stencil for drawing decision trees? (The shapes in the basic set are a good start, but the connectors and attachment points don't quite work)

Need Office furniture stencils
 

Found a few "home office" stenciles. Would be great to have a bullet desk, bowfront desk, credenza, etc some basics found in the corporate furniture world. Love the tool ready to roll with it.

I see the new v.5 is not loaded with stencils yet. I miss the office-centric stencils. Where can I get the old "Paper Stack" I had in v.3? An open 3-ring binder would be good. Anyhow, there is my straight-down-the-road request: Lotsa office stencils.

I need stencils for HP servers (in 3D and rack). Cisco rack stuff is also needed...

I would like to see some interesting Diagram Styles as well.

Duncan

I'd love some more medical and anatomical stencils

basic shapes
 

Yes, I would like lots of basic shapes, like curly braces, block arrows, call-outs, rings, etc.

Best regards,
Gabriel.

[QUOTE=robert.staflin;28113]I need stencils for HP servers (in 3D and rack). Cisco rack stuff is also needed...[/QUOTE]

I like to use HP and Cisco Stencils too - importing them from Visiocafe ([url]http://www.visiocafe.com/hp.htm[/url]) is not very usefull (EMF-Errors...)

How about some really good network stencils produced by the Icon Factory.

As a user experience designer, I often use tools like Omnigraffle to mock up screens to show developers our direction on a new project. I'd love to see some iPhone stencils, as our company plans to develop an application with the forthcoming SDK.

*Keeping fingers crossed* :)

Need world map asap
 

I appreciate the new maps in v5, but the most needed world map is not there. I tried to scale some of the ones that are included; too much hassle.'
Can I request a world map?

iPhone UI Template
 

I'd love to see a iPhone UI template to help developers in making their iPhone applications.

This should probably help sell a few more licenses for OG, so it wouldn't be a total waste of time. :)

I would love to see smart stencils for mocking up screen designs. Visio works great for this. With OmniGraffle, you have to stitch multiple pieces together to get a single window frame. If you need to resize the window, it's a royal pain to do it. With Visio, you drag the corner and you are done! Another example - screen widgets which have properties for enabled, disabled, selected, deselected. In Visio, you just rClick on stencil and set it's attributes. Simple. I want to ditch my PC. If OmniGraffle can make screen designs as easy as visio... I can do it :-)

I could use:
Dimensioning, Crestron Equipment, Call Outs, The same type of User interface stuff listed above, more construction stencils like walls and doors and windows, cabinets, furniture, etc.

Extra Stencils for OmniGraffle
 

Omnigraffle is good and, being a Mac user, there is no contest. However, I still have fond memories of SmartDraw - and I agree with another poster that I would love to import their clipart - or at least have a parallel set that I could use in Omnigraffle.

[QUOTE=Jason;33654]As a user experience designer, I often use tools like Omnigraffle to mock up screens to show developers our direction on a new project. I'd love to see some iPhone stencils, as our company plans to develop an application with the forthcoming SDK.

*Keeping fingers crossed* :)[/QUOTE]

Agreed. A lot more UX design templates could be useful. Mobile / iphone UI stencils, General UI wireframe stencils are needed too. Most stencils are designed for windows 3.1 style applications or web 1.0 apps.

Since i've been focusing on mobile UX for last 6 years, I've got my templates sorted out, but unfortunately can't share them. :(

----------
[url]www.idean.com[/url]

Hi,

I've been using omnioutliner for a while, and now I want to use omnigraffle to organize my notes regarding the research papers I've been reading. My idea is to be able to categorize the papers by the author, relate them with notes, introduce the most important abstracts, use colors to map which papers applies each methodology, etc...

Summing up, get a visual map of what I've been doing such amount of time to be able to plan my writting

Does anyone use some kind of stencil for that application?

cheers, sik

My 3rd request
 

Hey... we all love Omni Graffle
we all want more stencils

I requested the following several years ago but it fell on deaf ears... perhaps now someone will either listen or instruct us all on how to do this ;-)

Smart Draw has some AWESOME stencil collections for EVERY occasion, event, project etc.

Wouldn't it be great if Omni Graffle could read the smart draw format and thus IMPORT any doc created by SmartDraw? Then we could at least have some form of getting at the stencil collection those PC users enjoy.

Secondly, I'd love to be able to import the Smart Draw stencils directly into Omni Graffle.... PLEASE

I spoke with the nice folks at smartdraw and they have no intention on creating a Mac version... so please get to it and put a bigger smile on our faces for v5.2 ;-)

How about working with the folks from Alitma Tech ([url]www.netzoom.com[/url]) to integrate their stencils into OmniGraffle. Since the latest version will read standard VSS format (minus metadata) it should be too much of a stretch to make with work with OG. I'm in IT and use NetZoom stencils frequently!

I could use more furniture stencils - especially for Ikea and other european flat-pack manufacturers like Hettich and Furni. Kitchen cabinets as well would be useful as I'm designing my new house at the moment!

Electrical Wiring Stencils
 

I'm looking for a stencil set with the common symbols for electrical wiring. Anyone know if one exists?

--Liz

Liz, is [URL="http://www.graffletopia.com/stencils/19"]this[/URL] what you're looking for?

I would like to see an ethernet bus symbol somewhere (commonly represented as a horizontal cylinder with a line through it containing several connector lines). I tried creating my own stencil using Omnigraffle itself but, it appears unable to handle connector lines unless they are attached at both ends.

[QUOTE=JellyHead;65905]I would like to see an ethernet bus symbol somewhere (commonly represented as a horizontal cylinder with a line through it containing several connector lines). I tried creating my own stencil using Omnigraffle itself but, it appears unable to handle connector lines unless they are attached at both ends.[/QUOTE]

Likewise. I haven't found a good way of doing this yet.

I'm looking for stencils to realize Grafcet diagrams. Any idea?

Linked Lists and Data Structures
 

Hi,
I am looking for a stencil for quickly making diagrams of linked list structures (e.g. linked lists, binary search trees, 2 - 3 trees, etc.. ) any suggestions?
Thanks
Josh

How about Piping symbols? Valves, pumps, heat exchangers, boilers, chillers, etc. It would be helpfull for making sketches for installs that the crew/engineers could understand.
Here are a couple of examples
[URL="http://www.roymech.co.uk/Useful_Tables/Drawing/Flow_sheets.html"]http://www.roymech.co.uk/Useful_Tables/Drawing/Flow_sheets.html[/URL][URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piping_and_instrumentation_diagram"]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piping_and_instrumentation_diagram[/URL]

[QUOTE=curiousstranger;66924]Likewise. I haven't found a good way of doing this yet.[/QUOTE]
Thirding this request. The lack of an ethernet stencil is one of the only things keeping me using Visio.

With no trolling in mind, it seems to me that those people who are looking for specific stencil sets which don't exist to date, might think about creating them themselves and posting on Graffletopia. I'm not in a line of work that would need any such set, but if I were, that is what I would do. For instance, if you have the set in Visio — which I've never used — why not create a diagram of using the elements you want, import it into OmniGraffle, tweak the elements the way you want them and then save them as stencils? Or is that illegal, piracy? Do you have to start from scratch?

Create one yourself!
 

[QUOTE=xiamenese;74564]With no trolling in mind, it seems to me that those people who are looking for specific stencil sets which don't exist to date, might think about creating them themselves and posting on Graffletopia. I'm not in a line of work that would need any such set, but if I were, that is what I would do.[/QUOTE]

That's exactly right. It is a bit silly waiting for someone else to do it (after all we do have OmniGraffle), and crying about them not having done it yet.

Personally, for me anyway, there were "stencils" available, but they were just simple drawings, not what I would call stencils, no thought re: applicable standards, rulers and alignment, handles, appropriate lines for the type of drawing etc. So with my own advice in mind, I created my own. Now that they are stable and tested for a few years, I have uploaded them to Graffletopia:
[URL="http://graffletopia.com/stencils/589"]Data Flow Diagram (SSADM)[/URL]
[URL="http://graffletopia.com/stencils/590"]Entity Relation Diagram (ERD)[/URL]
[URL="http://graffletopia.com/stencils/588"]Data Model (IDEF1X)[/URL]

I have a few more, I will upload when they are stable.

[QUOTE]For instance, if you have the set in Visio — which I've never used — why not create a diagram of using the elements you want, import it into OmniGraffle, tweak the elements the way you want them and then save them as stencils? Or is that illegal, piracy? Do you have to start from scratch?[/QUOTE]
That is plagiary, or theft of another person's work, you are better off starting from scratch; you might even come up with better symbols if you do it yourself.

Having said that, if the work (is [I]not[/I] protected by copyright, and it is published in the public domain (and Visio is not public domain, you have to license it), you can copy the work and use it. In which case, you should always provide credit to the original author (otherwise it is plagiary).

SonicWALL
 

SonicWALL stencils would be great!

Cross-functional or Swimlane diagrams
 

It would be really useful to have cross-functional (also called swimlanes) process flow functionality. I know that Omniplan uses swimlanes however I need to work with Visio originals and exchange documents with Windows users. Visio has a cross-functional stencil that basically has a resizable swimlane and a divider.

Thanks! Love OmniGraffle as much as I loved Diagram! back in the day.
Tim

Request for Electrical Schematic Symbol Library - Aviation focus
 

Folks,
I'm doing some electrical schematic / wiring work for aircraft. I would love to see Omnigraffle with a stencil set for aviation related electrical schematic diagrams.

Is anyone aware of this? I checked Graffletopia and couldn't find anything. Those were more electronics focused.

I've revised this post to include a link to example of electrical architecture / symbol examples:

[url]http://www.aeroelectric.com/PPS/Adobe_Architecture_Pdfs/[/url]

Further description of the symbols can be found in the AeroElectric Connection chapter 1 "DC Wiring & Fundamentals".

[url]http://www.aeroelectric.com/Book/AEC12A_PDF.zip[/url]

Thanks,
Howard

In general, it seems like it would be helpful if those folks asking for stencils for XYZ could post links to pages showing lists of useful symbols for doing XYZ. Someone else looking for an OmniGraffle learning project but not knowing beans about XYZ could have a look and see if it looked to be an interesting exercise, and have some confidence that if they did a good job, the result might actually be of some use. In other words, help others help you!

Providing examples of symbols XYZ...
 

[QUOTE=whpalmer4;91689]In general, it seems like it would be helpful if those folks asking for stencils for XYZ could post links to pages showing lists of useful symbols for doing XYZ. Someone else looking for an OmniGraffle learning project but not knowing beans about XYZ could have a look and see if it looked to be an interesting exercise, and have some confidence that if they did a good job, the result might actually be of some use. In other words, help others help you![/QUOTE]

I agree with you 100%. When I posted my request...I tried to attach a file (39Kb) as an example...but the forum restricts PDF files to 19KB or less. Pretty tight! I'll try to squeeze the file somehow. Would be nice if we could up the attachment size limit. Anyone know a way around that one?

Thx,
Howard

Well, you can post a link to the PDF file, if you found it on a website somewhere. Or put it on a website (got a Dropbox account?) and post a link. Failing that, open it up in Preview, get a screen capture of the window content with cmd-shift-4, then upload the screen capture to [url]http://imageshack.us[/url] or similar file hosting site and post the link to that.

I add the URL links for the example symbols. Thx.

stencil for electrical schematics
 

[QUOTE=hplevyak;91684]Folks,
I'm doing some electrical schematic / wiring work for aircraft. I would love to see Omnigraffle with a stencil set for aviation related electrical schematic diagrams.

Is anyone aware of this? ...

Thanks,
Howard[/QUOTE]

I created a good stencil for ladder logic electrical schematics, which I used to create a diagram for a BMW motorcycle electric system:
(oops, the URL is disallowed since I am new, will post later)(or google Mac-PAC.org and see the Tech page)
I too was surprised to find no stencils already available.
I want to submit my stencil to GraffleTopia, but there are some annoying bugs, which I have reported:
-the connection points of a grouped object, like a simple NO Switch, do not nicely snap to grid, so wiring it up can be a pain.
-the "selection perimeter" around some grouped objects is sometimes so large that you have to temporarily move it away in order to select something else.

But my friends are very pleased with the final diagram I made with OmniGraffle.
Doug

Omnigraffle?
 

Hi,

Would it not be Omnifocus you would be better to use for such an application?

I've used Omnifocus to good effect since I moved to the Mac platform full time and it's excellent for organising all manner of information and showing its structure.

In this latter respect I found it slightly more useful than Notebook which is my all time favourite since the demise of Lotus Organiser which I had used under Windows and OS/2.

hughf

[QUOTE=sik;58556]Hi,

I've been using omnioutliner for a while, and now I want to use omnigraffle to organize my notes regarding the research papers I've been reading. My idea is to be able to categorize the papers by the author, relate them with notes, introduce the most important abstracts, use colors to map which papers applies each methodology, etc...

Summing up, get a visual map of what I've been doing such amount of time to be able to plan my writting

Does anyone use some kind of stencil for that application?

cheers, sik[/QUOTE]

Smart Stencils (Shapes)!
 

I would like to echo the request for "smart stencils" a la the smart shapes in Visio that allow for a single stencil to have multiple states -- such as checked, unchecked, enabled, disabled, etc. It's a very handy feature when wireframing web- and mobile-based interfaces.

This would go a long way in terms of bringing Omnigraffle neck-and-neck with Visio, and ease the transition of folks who are migrating from that software to Graffle.

Cheers!

Another call for a cross-functional business process flow stencil (aka swimlane stencil).

There doesn't seem to be anything in Graffletopia and it's a total pain to create swimlane process flows in Omnigraffle compared to Visio...

While I accept you can import a Visio process flow and edit it, you lose all the capabilities around smart editing of swimlanes and shapes.

[QUOTE=Brian Williams;34263]I appreciate the new maps in v5, but the most needed world map is not there. I tried to scale some of the ones that are included; too much hassle.'
Can I request a world map?[/QUOTE]

Hi, new to this forum. Loving Omnigraffle, but need a world map... does anyone know if Brian's request from a while ago was solved with any newer templates? I'm using OmniGraffle Pro 5.4.2, ideally need the whole world on one map.

Many thanks
Tim

request idea
 

i think it'd be useful to use our (users) searches from the stencils window and create blocks for the most common searches.