| TikZ & pgfplots are really nice if you get over the initial learning curve and prefer programmatically defining things rather than drawing by hand. E.g. in my theses all figures (except one in my first thesis) were made with TiKZ with colors and definitions defined in a file that is "imported" during compilation. This allowed me to fine tune various parts (colors, ...) without having to touch each figure again.
Also, all the data files are stored as CSV and read/processed by LaTeX.
Between handing in my thesis and publishing the short-paper version of it for a conference I could rerun my analysis (to include the most recent data) with a single command and then just recompile the document to have all figures updated. The thesis: https://www.ac.tuwien.ac.at/files/pub/hinteregger_18.pdf And TikZ graphics play somewhat nice with the beamer package. I found it easier to define transitions in technical figures with TikZ/beamer than with PowerPoint or any other tool so far. In a summer internship I worked on the documentation of a project that tried to optimize pillar-placement for skilifts.
This was very Math/Physics heavy. With TikZ I could define various parts (e.g. pillar, rope, gondola) as "function" and then create figures that combined these parts. I.e:
- place pillars at these locations
- connect them with ropes obeying some formula
- put gondolas along the rope with some defined distance Important points where marked with coordinates automatically, allowing explanatory nodes (text box with arrow or paths with labels) to be added (with full LaTeX support). |