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<p>BTW - if you want a complete MS365 replacement, check out
Nextcloud. It's not perfect, but it's actually pretty good, and
you can run it entirely on your own hardware if you want, or you
can pay a service like <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.federated.computer/">https://www.federated.computer/</a> to manage
it for you (they are good to work with) -- and they use Jitsi
(another FOSS project) for videoconferencing (been one of the most
reliable videoconferencing services I've used).</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 10/22/2025 8:49 AM, Timothy Snowden
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:1af1f134-2502-4da9-9767-0477a6d3dc46@outlook.com">
<p>I've used all three. They work, and are great. I still use
Inkscape on at least every other application (I don't use Visio,
but I do use WithEdge for drafting -- hence my less reliance on
flowcharting). I use FreeCAD semi-regularly to open a STP file
and generate SVGs to take to Inkscape and modify. DrawIO is also
a good project for flowcharts (free, but not fully open source)
because Inkscape is not the greatest / most efficient with
flowcharts. yEd is also a good graph editor (again, free but not
open source) and runs on Ubuntu last time I looked.</p>
<p>1. Inkscape - I created a template with different common
drawings I commonly use. If I'm preparing a complete drawing set
in Inkscape, I really like Inkscape's ability to look at all the
pages like a 'canvas' instead of one at a time. I also use
snapping heavily. So I guess that answers your questions -- I
build out the drawing pages directly on Inkscape. I've thought
that Inkscape's extensability would open the door to a really
nice patent drawing specific plugin for automatic numbering,
generating a reference list, etc. ... but never had time to
pursue that.</p>
<p>2 & 3. I've run both on Ubuntu. For a few years I ran only
on Ubuntu for all patent drafting. FreeCAD & Inkscape both
run well on Ubuntu -- possibly better than on Windows. No
particular advice -- they pretty much install natively. If you
plan to modify them you might want to avoid snaps, as those
aren't as friendly to modification.</p>
<p>4. Not FOSS, but I use PDFX-Change to rasterize everything to
B&W anyway - I forget the exact algorithm but it does a
pretty good job of getting shading as close visually as you're
going to get in B&W only. Probably my primary pain point on
Ubuntu is the lack of really good PDF software. Good CAD
software used to be the other lack (VariCAD was your primary
paid option), but FreeCAD is plenty capable now. </p>
<p>5. For shading, I typically try to use a cross-hatching pattern
fill in Inkscape and avoid 'shading' per se. However, if you're
coming from FreeCAD, you can cross-hatch a cross-section (by
default), and change green to B&W, and it comes out pretty
good.</p>
<p>6. Not sure -- I would imagine so, but I'm not clear exactly
what you're doing in shading, so there may be several tools that
could do it.</p>
<p>7. Theoretically, yes.</p>
<p>8. Well, no, since we can't see the source and AFAIK
PatentCenter doesn't publicly adhere to a given color standard,
I guess we can't know that PatentCenter will reliably properly
interpret those, but that would equally affect all other files
too, since that's how everybody else is defining the colors too.
So ... I think that it's safe to rely on from a practical point
of view.</p>
<p>Hope that helps.</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 10/22/2025 8:30 AM, Rick Neifeld
via Patentpractice wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:CA++DgCYhzJ7X-sBgWR-g+D++A9TkSivQ2hL=cF3nbT4BEYgycg@mail.gmail.com">
<div dir="ltr">
<div><font size="4"><b>Background and Questions:</b></font></div>
<div><font size="4"> Being able to prepare complicated patent
drawings has been on my professional bucket list for a
couple decades. To do so with purely open source software
is kinda on that list.</font></div>
<div><font size="4"><br>
</font></div>
<div><font size="4">I can now design 3D models, generate 2D
engineering drawings therefrom, and export the drawings to
SVG, from FreeCAD. And I can use Inkscape to import the
SVG files and readily mark them up with sheet numbers,
Figure numbers, reference characters, curved and
straight lead lines, arrows, and feature numbers, and then
export them from Inkscape to pdf (or to a bit mapped image
format suitable for including in a strict DOCX file). And
both FreeCAD and Inkscape are free and open source.</font></div>
<div><font size="4"><br>
</font></div>
<div><font size="4">1. Has anyone else gone down this path and
have any observations, dos and don'ts, or the like? Did
you use all ten default (or multiple) views in a page or
stick to one view? Why or why not?</font></div>
<div><font size="4"><br>
</font></div>
<div><font size="4"><b>Ubuntu Compatibility</b></font></div>
<div><font size="4">I am currently using FreeCAD and Inkscape
on Windows 10. Upon review of Windows 11, it seems to me
a bridge too far. Windows 11 locks the user in to Windows
and MS products for all eternity. The combination of a TPM
2.0 chip required by Windows 11, mandatory secure boot,
and automatic turnon of bitlocker on boot, tied to the
users microsoft ID, does that. Ubuntu, FreeCAD, and
Inkscape are all free an open source. And I have enough
technical oomph to load and use ubuntu on some computers.
So I plan to do that, keeping my existing Windows boxes,
but moving to all free and open source.</font></div>
<div><font size="4"><br>
</font></div>
<div><font size="4">2. Has anyone run FreeCAD on Ubuntu? Got
any sage or stupid advice? Any difference from running on
Windows?</font></div>
<div><font size="4">3.</font> <font size="4"> Has anyone run
Inkscape on Ubuntu? Got any sage or stupid advice? Any
difference from running on Windows?</font> </div>
<div><font size="4"><br>
</font></div>
<div><font size="4"><br>
</font></div>
<div><font size="4"><b>Hatching versus shading</b></font></div>
<div>
<div><font size="4">Hatching, what the patent rules identify
as oblique lines to identify cross-sections.</font></div>
<div><font size="4">Shading, what the patent rules identify
has usable to identify curved surfaces and, in
perspective view, flat surfaces</font></div>
<br>
</div>
<div><font size="4">4. My issue here is the PTO conversion of
image data to bitonal, at least for pdf images. First, I
am guessing that bit mapped objects in "DOCX" files are
likewise converted to bitonal. Does anyone know if that
is the case?</font></div>
<div><font size="4"><br>
</font></div>
<div><font size="4">5. Assuming PatentCenter converts to
bitonal an uploaded grayscale pdf image file, how does it
handle "shading." Shading seems to be ambiguous because
it defines what we see and not the data format. For
example, I could make something look shaded rendaring a a
bitonal image file in which every third pixel was black,
the rest white. But that is not generally how its done,
right? </font></div>
<div><font size="4"><br>
</font></div>
<div><font size="4">6. Is there some method of defining in
Inkscape (or some other svg file editor) shading in
bitonal data format? </font></div>
<div><font size="4">7. Can I define the line spacing and
dimension small enough in Inkscape so that the result
appears to be shading instead of individual lines? If so,
what settings?</font></div>
<div><font size="4">8. FreeCAD and Inkscape allow for RGB or
RGBa settings that are equivalent to white, and black. For
example, 255,255,255 and 0,0,0. Do we know that
PatentCenter will interpret those as the proper bitonal
values, aka white and black?</font></div>
<div><font size="4"><br>
</font></div>
<div><font size="4"><br>
</font></div>
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</font></div>
<div>
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">
<div dir="ltr">
<div><font size="4">Best regards</font></div>
<div><font size="4">Rick Neifeld, J.D., Ph.D. <br>
</font></div>
<div><font size="4">Neifeld IP Law PLLC<br>
</font></div>
<div><font size="4">9112 Shearman Street, Fairfax VA
22032</font></div>
<div><font size="4">Mobile: 7034470727<br>
</font></div>
<div><font size="4">Email: <a href="mailto:RichardNeifeld@gmail.com" target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">RichardNeifeld@gmail.com</a>; <br>
</font></div>
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