
I'm a crime scene investigator and have beeen investigating the use of Inkscape for crime scene sketching. Has anyone else done this? It has all of the features that the high end programs do. I can not find any open source libraries of crime scene symbols to use with it though. I have begun compliing a libray myself. If no one out there has an open source one I will continue. It will have a large number of files and I would like to make it available in one download. The clip art area would not be approaite due to the large number of files. Any suggestions?

On Fri, Oct 07, 2005 at 07:12:35PM +0000, Brian Cochran wrote:
I'm a crime scene investigator and have beeen investigating the use of Inkscape for crime scene sketching. Has anyone else done this? It has all of the features that the high end programs do. I can not find any open source libraries of crime scene symbols to use with it though. I have begun compliing a libray myself. If no one out there has an open source one I will continue. It will have a large number of files and I would like to make it available in one download. The clip art area would not be approaite due to the large number of files. Any suggestions?
Hi Brian,
Very cool, sounds like a great use for Inkscape. :-)
This is the definitely the first I've heard of people using it for crime scene sketching, so I'm not surprised that there has been a lack of symbols until yours.
We tend to encourage everything be submitted to the clipart library, but can give you some additional options if that's not appropriate.
The advantages of submitting them to the clipart library are that it is a straightforward way for others to contribute more symbols, adjust the images to work in a wider variety of programs, and so forth. The clipart library is also included on a wide number of Linux distributions, so this would make your symbols easily available to a very wide audience.
For large submissions, the library accepts zip files and tarball packages, which can be a bit easier to upload. You include a metadata file with your name and so forth, so we can make sure you get credit for your work.
However, for some people it is not feasible to contribute. First, the library requires all submissions be Public Domain; some people want to provide their work under specific license criteria (such as GPL, etc.) Also, sometimes symbols are trademarked (like logos). The clipart library can't accept those, since everything must be clear PD.
Also, sometimes people are planning to make rapid revisions to the artwork, in which case it can be cumbersome to manage through the current clipart library interface. In this case, it can make sense to provide it as a separate package, with the possibility of merging it in later.
Anyway, while I'd really encourage you to contribute it to the clipart library, I would be more than happy to help you set it up as a separate download from the Inkscape site. I can give you access so you can post updated packages directly, too, if you'd like.
Let me know how you'd like to go.
Bryce

If you have not already checked it out you might be interested to try Dia http://gnome.org/projects/dia/
It is aimed at tasks you might use Microsoft Visio for (and I know Visio happens to include Crime Scene templates). Dia is not great for drawing new shapes but it is better than Inkscape when it comes to reusing a collection of shapes you have already created (and hopefully in future the two programs will be able to share more easily). I understand it might not fit your needs exactly but I hope you will at least take a few minutes to consider using it, possibly in combination with Inkscape.
Sincerely
Alan Horkan

Alan Horkan <horkana@...3...> wrote:
If you have not already checked it out you might be interested to try Dia http://gnome.org/projects/dia/
It is aimed at tasks you might use Microsoft Visio for (and I know Visio happens to include Crime Scene templates). Dia is not great for drawing new shapes but it is better than Inkscape when it comes to reusing a collection of shapes you have already created (and hopefully in future the two programs will be able to share more easily). I understand it might not fit your needs exactly but I hope you will at least take a few minutes to consider using it, possibly in combination with Inkscape.
Sincerely
Alan Horkan
Last time I checked, Dia was unable to correctly import SVGs, even ones it had created itself!
participants (4)
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Alan Horkan
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Brian Cochran
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Bryce Harrington
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Bungee