Description
- SmartDraw 2008 is a versatile program that helps you easily create various drawings from flowcharts to floor plans.
- Comes with numerous templates and symbol libraries to get you started quickly.
- Allows you to export your drawing to several popular formats including PDF, MS Word, Excel or PowerPoint.
- Neat features include creating maps, flyers, charts, diagrams, business cards, and more.
- SmartDraw offers specialized versions of their software including a Legal Edition and Healthcare Edition.
- For Windows XP, 2000, or Vista.
Background
New Features
I should note that this review was originally written while using the 2007 version of SmartDraw. Since then, I have had a chance to upgrade to SmartDraw 2008. Though the look and feel of SmartDraw 2008 is very similar to the prior version, there are some notable new features that could make the upgrade compelling. I used the following new features and I especially liked the Live Maps feature, which integrates with Google Maps:- Automatic Flowcharting - flowcharts are built using simple commands. Shapes are placed with lines drawn automatically. The flowchart is spaced and aligned automatically as it is created.
- Automatic Graphic Design - a series of selectable graphic themes specifying colors, line and type style can be automatically applied to each project. This feature quickly gives your project a unified professional look.
- One-Step Charts and Picture Charts - charts and graphs can be built without having to create a spreadsheet first. User can create charts that use pictures or images to display data.
- Live Maps - captures live Google map data from the Internet allowing users to easily incorporate roads, counties, zip codes, etc into their project. I can see this as an amazing time-saver.
My Drawing Project
With the new version, I used my same floor plan to become familiar with the program. Again, in just a couple of hours, I had created another professional-looking, to-scale floor plan. Several variations quickly followed, including a simple elevation. I'd like to stress here how simple SmartDraw is to use, especially for floor plan sketches. I've tried other more general drawing programs and they don't come close. SmartDraw's extensive symbol libraries and automatic tools make it a breeze to use. I don't mean to over-stress the floor plan features (there is much more that SmartDraw can do), but the floor plan project is what I used as my measuring stick.
Using SmartDraw 2008
When you open SmartDraw, you are presented with the "Create a New Document" tab, with a broad list of categories to choose from. The list includes just about every type of drawing you could ever require: Calendars, Certificates, Engineering, Floor Plans, Flowcharts, etc. Clicking on the broad categories brings up a sub-list of more-specific drawing types. As you click, thumbnail images of templates for the drawing types show up in the main window and clicking the template opens a new document with that template for you to begin editing.
The User Interface
To the left of your document is the SmartPanel, which includes the most common tools and commands for the type of document/drawing you will be creating. For example, if you are creating a floor plan this window includes tools for drawing walls, doors, etc. If you are making a flowchart, there are tools for adding shapes, drawing connector lines, etc. Next to the SmartPanel tab is the Library tab, which accesses all the symbol libraries attached to your document. By choosing "More…", the "More Symbols" pop-up appears, with a menu tree including an enormous searchable list of symbol libraries and clip art. To the right of the drawing is the SmartHelp frame with links to SmartDraw's Help documentation and step-by-step instruction appropriate for the type of document you are working on.
I tested SmartDraw 2008 on a Dell Inspiron Laptop with Dual AMD Turion processor, Windows XP, 1G RAM and 256M shared video memory. The program starts quickly and runs very well on my machine, which is well above the listed system requirements. I recommend installing the libraries on your local hard disk; however, the extensive libraries are available online. A full-featured trial version is available from SmartDraw.com. The trial is valid for 7 days and prints a watermark on exported files and printer output.
Pros:
- Satisfies a wide range of functionality.
- Most functions are intuitive.
- Extremely easy to start creating professional-looking documents.
- Designed for amateurs and professionals.
- May be too many features for some users.
- Though it is a good value for the money, it may be a bit pricey for a casual user (SmartDraw is marketed to business customers).
- Not for the hardcore CAD user.
