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<p>Oh, and if you're used to Visio, don't ignore LibreOffice Draw.
It takes a bit to understand the LibreOffice way of doing things,
but Draw is actually a pretty decent Visio replacement.</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 10/22/2025 8:51 AM, Timothy Snowden
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:96d99e74-8567-46ee-8920-f0b4bb66be6b@outlook.com">
<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/" moz-do-not-send="true">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>
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<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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