Software to draw SEM diagrams
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paologhisletta
Joined: 01/19/2010
Forums
Greetings,
it appears that the OpenMx team prefers the Graphviz software to draw SEM diagrams. I guess the choice was a compromise between quality and flexibility (Graphviz appears to run on several OS).
What drawing software would you suggest under Windows XP if I wanted to create a diagram from scratch? (I looked at Tetrad, which seems less esthetic than Graphviz). Is there anything as good as OmniGraffle for Macs? Or would you suggest installing a Mac emulator on Windows and use OmniGraffle? Please don't suggest I go Linux or Mac ;-)
Many thanks, best regards,
paolo
Some R packages do actually
On Windows, I think the best diagrammer is Visio. Not sure if it imports .dot. Can someone confirm?
Powerpoint is an OK environment for drawing diagrams. At least it has the notion of connectors.
I see now that there are several pretty good looking packages running on google apps. Like Creatly
Creatley.
FYI: Omnigraffle's import of .dot is incomplete but in ways that often don't matter too much. It also enforces a layout which ignores the min/max criteria in .dot
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Here are some current
http://alternativeto.net/software/omnigraffle/?platform=windows
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In reply to Here are some current by Jeff
Hello All- I just am getting
I just am getting acquainted with both SEM and OpenMx. It appears this may be the best place to post my question.
I've been playing around and getting output, but expected graphical output as well.
Is the Psych library what needs to be installed for this to work, or should I be getting graphical output already, and something is wrong?
Thanks in advance
Miesnerd
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In reply to Here are some current by Jeff
Thanks Jeff its it helped me
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For diagrams, I don't mind
omxGraphviz(model=myModelName, dotFilename="myModelName.dot")
into the R console, and this outputs the file myModelName.dot. If I don't already have the model or if it is a non-RAM-type model, then I can construct the diagram in the .dot language of Graphviz.
Once I have the .dot file, I go to the DOS command prompt, go to the directory where the .dot file is and type
dot -Tpdf -o DesiredOutputName.pdf myModelName.dot
This creates the file DesiredOutputName.pdf which is a pdf of the graph of the model. This same process works on Mac except with the Mac Terminal instead of the DOS command prompt. In either case, you need to have Graphviz installed on your machine to do this. Graphviz can be found at http://www.graphviz.org/ . There is a Windows binary that quickly installs the software needed.
This is the best method I've found that involves free software that runs on many operating systems.
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In reply to For diagrams, I don't mind by mhunter
Is there a way to move objects
Thanks
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In reply to Is there a way to move objects by AN
graphviz layout and editing
For an editor, open the .dot file in Omnigraffle or similar editing application that can read graphviz files.
PS: You can often get very close to what you want using graphviz' layout hints. You can set lines to be straight or bezier, and can order objects to the top, middle or bottom of the graph, as well as flowing in different directions. It's quite flexible.
My workflow is graphviz for quick looks, then Omnigraffle for publication
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In reply to graphviz layout and editing by tbates
Omnigraffle curves
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also
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Thank you, tbates! I just
I just wanted to say that your reply has been really useful for me..
I need all the help I can get! And it helped a lot
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