Looks different, I hope that it should be effective too.

My installation reverted to Trial as well.
I have 1 day left on mine, and it says the same thing:

The activate code has been used in other computers.

I was really interested in using this program, but now I guess I will not be able to unless someone can provide everyone with a different license code.

My installation reverted to Trial, too.

"The activate code has been used in other computers."

I had a chance to try this out for an actual need, creating a land survey type of document as required for a building permit where I live. As everything needed to be to scale, I went through the effort of setting up everything so I could place objects on the screen and fix their sizes to their real world equivalents.

That's where the problems came in with Edraw Max. It seemed that for every object I placed in my survey, I had to manually set the scale, and the length multiple times if the unit didn't stick properly. Trying to set things scale equal to the page setup didn't seem to work. It's like there's a disconnect between settings for a file being worked on, and the default program settings when placing something new in a file. What made it worse is the simply insufficient help system. Not only is there no help system, but no user base large enough to have an online community to go to.

After taking about 30 minutes to get about 4 or 5 objects placed correctly, sized correctly, and displaying the proper units, I decided to download a trial of Visio Professional. What a difference!

It took me a couple of minutes to get the page setup changes working correctly, but after that, it was much, MUCH easier to work with the objects I was trying to handle. I could manually type in the lengths (in their real world sizes) and positions of objects if I wanted to. No playing around with scale, no fidgeting around with 5 extra settings per object to get it to do what I wanted, just drop the objects, set the length attributes I wanted, and stick them where they needed to go. If I needed some help, online help was there to help... most of the time.

Visio isn't perfect. It's a little clunky, like they know they have captive customers, and it has some bland looking graphics. If I had to work with a program like Edraw Max on a regular basis, I'd have to absorb the pain and shell out for Visio, as I would go nuts spending more than a few days of my life doing something as unproductive as working with such not-yet-ready-for-business software. It took me about 3 or 4 hours to do what I needed to do in Visio. At the rate I was going, it would have taken me 3 or 4 days in Edraw Max.

Edraw Max has a lot going for it, but needs a some quality control work put into it before it can be a valuable alternative to Visio.

#192, mine is now marked as a trial version as well, with 27 days remaining, even though the license name and code used to register it are still listed in the program's boxes.

After using it a couple of times, it now says the trial period is ending and requires payment. The reg. key is no longer valid and is described as being used already. Duh?!!

Similar problem to #182. Anyone?

#101 - there is no "copyright" of the office ribbon a a whole. Microsoft has trade-protected whatever they can of course, but good luck enforcing that. Actually, it's smart for developers to mimic a well-known UI... and Microsoft should welcome it as it drives acceptance of their interface(s).

I will say though.... doing that isn't always appropriate. Exmaple - the very good Snag-It program by Techsmith went to a Word-like "ribbon" interface with version 9. Thing is... it ain't Word, it's a graphics program so the new interface is a bad fit... it takes more clicks to do the same thing... and features/settings that used to be front-and-center are now buried three-clicks deep.

One of the most NON-CUSTOMER ORIENTED companies I've ever dealt with. You're on your own if you expect to get any help from these people. To them... ALL THAT MATTERS IS MONEY.... NOT THE CUSTOMER !

Electrical Engineering? FALSE CLAIM on that one guys... there is a HUGE DIFFERNCE between what an Electrical Engineer does and what an ELECTRICIAN does... which is NOT ENGINEERING in the minutest form!

4+ years of grueling college and super advanced Math courses, physics, chemistry and MUCH more go into the higher education an Electrical ENGINEER has to accomplish - and they have nothing to do with wiring homes, hooking up electrical boxes or switches which is what an ELECTRICIAN does.

Smarten up guys and gals! This software doesn't come close to what an Electrical ENGINEER does in their work. Polly

for those who missed this GAOTD, there is the not-so-bad freeware Dia, coming from linux world and using GTK. It's sometime better that Visio because it's much simpler.
http://dia-installer.de/index_en.html

Installed fine and worked OK on my XP SP2 PC.
Thanks to Spiritwolf, Univ Cynic and others for their comments.

A good clone of visio - thanks gaotd, I've been looking for something like this

Yesterday, I downloaded this computer program but I couldn't activate it with the given username and activation code. But today, I've successfully activated it. It's a great program! Thumbs up and thanks to GAOTD!!!

Program works great. Thanks GAOTD! The only problem I have with it is that I didn't get this about 3 years ago since I had to do a lot of these in school. Oh well. For those who say it doesn't work in Vista I had absolutely no problems installing it on Vista Business 64-bit. Hopefully people have figured out their problems and I was fortunate not to have any.

Whatever the reason (#44) it didn't accept copy and paste for the registration the first 2 times, I typed in the info manually and all seems well.
Thanks GOTD!

Thanks, this looks like it should be good software for creating some maps I need to create. I installed it on XP and registered it, is fine and also on Vista. My Vista still says its a trial version, I uninstalled it and reinstalled it and same thing. Shut the program down a number of times. I've read thru all the comments and still can't get beyond trial. Anyone have any other suggestions?
Thank you GOFD.

Simply Put - It's AWESOME!
I don't have an idea why someone would rate it other than 5-Stars. The software installed perfectly, continues to run seamlessly, and is so versatile. I just found out about this website, while researching different software programs.

GOTD Group - You Rock! Period.

I've used this for about 7 hours so far today and I must say, it makes programming a sheer joy. I can't believe this kind of tool exists. They have a customer for life.

I have no use for this, but it looks like a quality product.

Kudos GAOTD.

@149

What happens when you select your appliances, hold down shift, and use the arrow keys to move them around?

For me, holding down the shift button lowers the amount your selection moves when hitting arrow buttons, and solves that problem.

I think this one is cool. It looks more like Microsoft Office 2007 than Visio 2007 is! You can change the interface theme to custom color - better than Office 2007.

The templates and objects are many and sufficient for most needs. I like this better then Visio. The drawings (files) are in tabs (on top) while the pages are in tabs below. It does add more to the productivity.

The Library task pane behavior is well thought out. When you create new drawing from template, it opens the related libraries but doesn't close the opened libraries. You won't be lost (a minute or two) trying to guess where was that shape you just used. You can still "Close all" libraries to start clean. Of course, I think this is actually meant to handle the tabbed interface so you'd have the same libraries opened in any tabs. The downside is that you'd probably get confused after there are so many libraries opened.

Generally, I like the shapes in the templates, even the borders. The cross-functional flowchart borders is easier to work with than in Visio - makes more sense having them as separate objects.

The multi-page feature can also be used to create self-executable slideshows. Now that means you can use this to create slideshows that don't need Edraw in order to run so you can show off the diagrams or send them via email to those who don't have Edraw. The slideshow is pretty basic though, just progressing from page to page (unless I'm missing something here). It also has ability to insert table - missing in Visio. Apart from those, it can also handle Word, Excel, and OLE objects in its drawings.

It's a pity, though, that not only it can't import/export Visio format, it can't even export to SVG. I think, at least, SVG format should be supported considering that it's an open standard and widely used by many drawing programs, even Visio. For vector formats, it can only export to WMF and EMF - those are hardly modern and useful today. If you copy and paste into other applications, the paste is in EMF. Good for Windows app, but not that good.

A disappointment for me is the lack of support for quick zoom using the mouse - for example, most graphic apps support CTRL-mousewheel for zoom-in/zoom-out. Not so in Edraw. That's a very important feature, especially in flowcharts where you want to see the big picture and quickly zoom-in/out to edit miniscule text. Another missing feature is the ability to control rotation and move using CTRL, SHIFT, and ALT keys. It's there for resize but how about snap-rotate (15deg) using CTRL, or constrained move with SHIFT? The way it works now is that all rotate are snapped and ALT-rotate give smaller snaps degree. I think these features would not be hard to implement. BTW, I think having the snap & glue in the ribbon would be better than in Options so it will make it easier to turn on/off certain snaps.

There are many more features in Edraw that I think if file formats or import/export is not a major concern to you, this will make you more productive than Visio. Of course, that depends on what type of diagrams you work most. I think the table feature is cool - so I can add a table to a flowchart. That'd be very useful in a presentation to explain, for example, a roles matrix in a process flow.

#149 Joe, if you can't place them, it's because the snap and glue thingy. You can turn it off in options or just press Shift while moving the object to temporarily override the snapping. I also saw the option to snap to shape outline but doesn't seem to work. Maybe a bug there?

trying one more time after reboot, to get my post to show up. If this doesn't work, I don't know what to do since if I tried to reformat hd and do fresh installs, I'd lose all my GAOTD stuff on my hd :(
Strange, I submitted two comments listing freeware apps, to do my part in giving links for freeware (since I always copy and save everyone else's freeware links!) but my comments didn't even show as "waiting for moderation!" So I'll try again, although combining the two posts this time.

Unless I missed something, I didn't see anybody postiung any URLS for freeware drawing apps.

Here are some links for freeware 3d graphics apps from my bookmarks collection:
Hope somebody finds them useful!

http://www.blender.org/

http://sweethome3d.sourceforge.net/
Sweet Home 3D is a free interior design application that helps you placing your furniture
on a house 2D plan, with a 3D preview.

05/18/2008 - Release of the first three libraries of additional 3D models
More than 300 models are now available and tested for Sweet Home 3D

http://www.aplusfreeware.com/misc/RoomArranger/RoomArranger.html
Room Arranger, version 3.26
This program is intended for designing room interiors. It allows you to place furniture, items and other objects. You can additionally move and rotate objects, change their colors and dimensions. But you can also plan your entire flat, one floor of the house or a new garden.

http://www.planetside.co.uk/terragen/
Terragen™ is a scenery generator for Windows and the Mac OS. Terragen is free for personal non-commercial use.

http://www.webmasterfree.com/free2Design_d7818.html
Free2Design, think3’s mechanical CAD software, won the award on the recent awarding ceremony of “Year-End Conclusion of Manufacturing Information of China 2006” hosted by e-works in Beijing. E-works is a leading application IT portal for Chinese manufacturing enterprises. think3 continues to invest in industry design and innovative product development solutions that offer our customers-small and medium manufacturing enterprises-competitive differentiation in their strategies.

http://www.turbosquid.com/Search/Index.cfm?INTBUNDLEID=&BLSHOWCATEGORYSELECT=false&ISTEXCKEY=&INTMEDIATYPE=-1&FLTRATING=0&INTMINPRICE=&INTMAXPRICE=&ISTEXCAUTHOR=&ISTINCAUTHOR=&INTSTARTROW=101&INTRATINGCOUNT=0&DATEBEFOREPUB=&INTFILETYPE_1=0&INTFILETYPE_2=0&INTFILETYPE_3=0&STGTYPE=&BLSEARCHGAMEREADYONLY=FALSE&INTCATEGORY=-1&STGBOOLEAN=L&FUSEACTION=ProcessSearch&DATEAFTERPUB=&ISTSEARCHKEY=free%2Bfurniture&stgAD=15J244404040441&stgOrderColumn=0&intSortOrder=0&blViewType=1&blViewTypeTip=y&intMaxResults=100
Free 3D furniture (there was no shorter URL to this that I could find)

http://www.snap2objects.com/2007/07/20/45-best-freeware-design-programs/

http://www.3dlinks.com/links.cfm?categoryid=1&subcategoryid=2&page=1
Links for freeware editions of some of the 3-D shareware progs are included on this page.

http://www.amazing3d.com/softfree.shtml
Links & short descriptions of a number of freeware 3-D graphics apps here

2nd post was:

For those of you looking for links to freeware mindmapping, graphics, brainstorming etc programs, here are some suggestions:


http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
FreeMind is a free mind mapping application written in Java. FreeMind is licensed under the GNU General Public License

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VUE_(Visual_Understanding_Environment)
VUE is a free, open source concept mapping application written in Java.

Wiki list of mind mapping freeware
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mind_mapping_software#Free_software


Wiki page of free diagramming software
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Free_diagramming_software

Wiki list of free graphics software
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Free_graphics_software


http://www.freebrainstorm.com/
What is FreeBrainstorm?
FreeBrainstorm is a collaborative brainstorming tool that allows you to take an idea and explore its merits. FreeBrainstorm is easy to use and best of all, it's free!

http://www.dostorm.com/
Explore any suggestion to the smallest pieces.
See the whole picture at once.

http://www.netnode.ch/activities/
free online collaboration/brainstorming site

http://www.molecularthinking.com/brainstorm/welcome
another free online collaboration/brainstorming site

@149, I don't know why you're having a problem. I tried the floor plan and it works great. I've even put (upper) cabinets above the counter. I would look at the examples. You'll notice that they don't go against the wall exactly which is right because you have to have room for electrical outlets.

But this is GREAT. I was just about to buy another software that was only for mind mapping. This has many more uses (such as the room design) and loads of graphics/icons. So it's not just flow charts or organizational charts. And certainly nothing you create will have to be boring. MUCH better than Visio and easy to use!

Unless I missed something, I didn't see anybody postiung any URLS for freeware drawing apps.

Here are some links for freeware 3d graphics apps from my bookmarks collection:
Hope somebody finds them useful!

http://www.blender.org/

http://sweethome3d.sourceforge.net/
Sweet Home 3D is a free interior design application that helps you placing your furniture
on a house 2D plan, with a 3D preview.

05/18/2008 - Release of the first three libraries of additional 3D models
More than 300 models are now available and tested for Sweet Home 3D


http://www.aplusfreeware.com/misc/RoomArranger/RoomArranger.html
Room Arranger, version 3.26
This program is intended for designing room interiors. It allows you to place furniture, items and other objects. You can additionally move and rotate objects, change their colors and dimensions. But you can also plan your entire flat, one floor of the house or a new garden.


http://www.planetside.co.uk/terragen/
Terragen™ is a scenery generator for Windows and the Mac OS. Terragen is free for personal non-commercial use.


http://www.webmasterfree.com/free2Design_d7818.html
Free2Design, think3’s mechanical CAD software, won the award on the recent awarding ceremony of “Year-End Conclusion of Manufacturing Information of China 2006” hosted by e-works in Beijing. E-works is a leading application IT portal for Chinese manufacturing enterprises. think3 continues to invest in industry design and innovative product development solutions that offer our customers-small and medium manufacturing enterprises-competitive differentiation in their strategies.


http://www.turbosquid.com/Search/Index.cfm?INTBUNDLEID=&BLSHOWCATEGORYSELECT=false&ISTEXCKEY=&INTMEDIATYPE=-1&FLTRATING=0&INTMINPRICE=&INTMAXPRICE=&ISTEXCAUTHOR=&ISTINCAUTHOR=&INTSTARTROW=101&INTRATINGCOUNT=0&DATEBEFOREPUB=&INTFILETYPE_1=0&INTFILETYPE_2=0&INTFILETYPE_3=0&STGTYPE=&BLSEARCHGAMEREADYONLY=FALSE&INTCATEGORY=-1&STGBOOLEAN=L&FUSEACTION=ProcessSearch&DATEAFTERPUB=&ISTSEARCHKEY=free%2Bfurniture&stgAD=15J244404040441&stgOrderColumn=0&intSortOrder=0&blViewType=1&blViewTypeTip=y&intMaxResults=100
Free 3D furniture (there was no shorter URL to this that I could find)


http://www.snap2objects.com/2007/07/20/45-best-freeware-design-programs/


http://www.3dlinks.com/links.cfm?categoryid=1&subcategoryid=2&page=1
Links for freeware editions of some of the 3-D shareware progs are included on this page.


http://www.amazing3d.com/softfree.shtml
Links & short descriptions of a number of freeware 3-D graphics apps here

As something to play with from time to time then it is worth the download.
As a usefull program for searious work it just does not do the job.

CRASHED!!!....looked promising until after about an hour it just decided it didnt want to work anymore. Nice try GOTD...but oh well....maybe next time. Looks like a lot of people trying this after an hour or so it crashes.

Program downloaded and registered/activated effortlessly on both my XP desktop and Vista laptop. @ #131 I know what you mean, most new Windows pcs and laptops come with Vista preinstalled, which is also how I got my introduction to Vista. I haven't figured out why people who gripe about Vista, don't realize that Vista lets you choose program compatibility options and some programs that have problems running under Vista, run fine when you use the option to have Vista run them in XP SP2 compatibility mode!

Since I've been working to learn more about graphics and how to create icons and other graphics items lately, I was excited to see a graphics program offered as today's Giveaway.

I saw someone mentioning power point and although I know many ppl have Office, and I had Office 2003 on another pc that is presently not yet back into working order, I found Office was such a big, memory-hogging, slow program that I often didn't want to use it because of the slowness of the program itself and the way Office slowed my pc down (and that one had 512 MB RAM and was a pentium 4!

Using XP SP3, downloaded the program from the website and registered using GAOTD-supplied username and password, and it works just fine. Have fiddled around a little and found it to work well (so far!) Save in any file-type/format using the "Save As" option. Definitely a keeper. Thanx guys!!!

this product will be useful to me and noting on the comment that you can use any licence name not just giveaway of the day that is for the licence name if you click help then click about you will see that it is licenced to giveawayoftheday. but i found that if you click register again then change the name to whatever name you want then click register it will activate again and change the licenced name for those who want to change it personally i prefer it as my own name

Wow. Nice software & easy to use. Thank you GOTD!

Well, i have used GAoTD for a loooong while now, and this is the first thing i have DL'd, and it won't register, i am copying and pasting everything where it supposed to go, but it won't work... oh well, this isn't something i have to have anyways.

Very useful for my "unique" project. My wife is a quilter, with a computer-controlled quilting machine that follows a digitized "stitch pattern" derived from line-art in bmp format. By driving EdrawMax with a macro scripting program, I can easily generate line-art vector drawings (using shapes from the various libraries) and export them in bmp format for import into the quilting program's digitizer. I've been planning to do this for some time, and EdrawMax lends itself rather well to the task -- especially since one can readily add shapes to the libraries. THANKS GAOTD!!!

Installation was a breeze. I tried a trial version of their flowchart program a while back and was pleased. Great program. Easy to learn and use.

Thanks GOTD !!

I'm also very pleased with today's software download... Special thanks to GAOTD and to the entire Edraw development team... A++++++++++++

this software is fantastic
I am going to use it to keep records for rabbit breeding

installed very easily on vista pro
I will find many more uses for it

thank you so much GAOTD

Great program easy installation. Just installed on my vista. To register product follow the prompts "buy now" hit the "Key button" and copy & paste the license name & code. Thanx GAOTD!

don't have time to read all the posts to see if anyone said this yet, so sorry if it is a repeat...

if you like this program enough to keep it, download the trial from the program's website and use the same key that GOTD gave you. It won't call home to GOTD so you'll be able to install it any time :)

Thanks GAOTD! Excellent software choice. I have been needing something like this for some time now. Best giveaway in recent memory. Thank you very much.

re: #57 - downloadable pdf manual link
I saw that on their website and downloaded it. Got a 2 page brochure. Figured you had found a real manual. Used your link. Got a 2 page brochure.

There does not seem to be a downloadable manual.
JK

After dloading and attempted install it failed during install (My WinXP PC). Idownloaded from the vendors site and installed without problems and I registered with my own name and everything is ok....
So I'm a happy chappy.

Thnx GAOTD

This is a comprehensive easy to use application. It has plenty of templates and color options. You can drag and drop shapes and create your own. It is very nice looking. I needed a program like this and am glad to have the opportunity to use this one - even if only for a while.

The one thing I dislike is the ribbon and I dislike that so much I am already thinking of uninstalling -- BUT that is my personal preference and has nothing to do with the usability of the program. I bought Microsoft Office 2007 last year. Two days later I returned it to the store and got a refund. I understand why it happens but it is unfortunate that program developers follow Microsoft's lead so closely. When I work with a program I want/need to see as much of it as I possibly can - especially graphics. As if XP's fat toolbars did not take up enough space, now even more real estate is lost to the even bigger ribbon. I wish this particular program had come with an option to use an alternative toolbar.

To #76. Chinese websites and software are considered dangerous by many. The worldwide web is full of warnings -- Just dig around a little. That would be a good reason for them to hide their real location no matter how honest and upstanding they no doubt are. Of course, they may just be providing the American affiliate to Americans. Seems appropriate enough>

To #118. There is an excellent tutorial on their website and you can download a pdf file from there.

Thanks GAOTD. I've gotten many wonderful applications from this website. I think this is a great one too for anyone with a use for this kind of program.

Simply an excellent program

Open the readme.txt file, License code there.

To my fellow ribbon haters: for $29.95 you can buy a brilliant piece of software that gives you your old menu structure back in MS Office 2007. Cheaper if you need it only for Word or for Excel. See www.addintools.com

Let's hope they bring out a version that also deribbonises Edraw Max, making it Edraw Superbe.

With RoadRunner down most of the day, finally got a chance to install Edraw Max.

Edraw Max installs 599 files & 56 folders in it's program folder, which takes up ~380 meg. Installwatch Pro reports 743 new registry entries, with 579 deleted. After installation, go to the Help tab & click the Register button - filling in the blanks for License Name & License Code, then clicking the activate button brought up a message that Auto-Activate failed, with a url to click to activate manually... Clicking that link brought up an activation page in the browser, with the activation number to paste in the Registration dialog or window. Registration/activation doesn't make the Register button go away, nor is there any indication in the Registration Window that registration was successful - clicking the About button however brings up an info window listing the program as licensed.

While most of the configuration data is stored in the registry (HKLM\SOftware\EdrawSoft\), some data is stored in files in the program's folder - not a bad idea IMHO to back that folder up to save those files just in case.

I've been playing around with the floorplan portion, and find it a little frustrating to deal with. It doesn't allow you to place base cabinets and appliances where you want them. I am having trouble getting base cabinets to go against the wall, and to align next to each other. Appliances won't go against walls either. Other than that, I am fairly happy with this program.

Total JUNK. Crashed on three different installations (three different computers). Two were Windows XP, one was Vista Business. Program locks up and dumps (losing all work to that point, not that I could get any done on it). The measuring options are not accurate, nor do they display properly.

No. 131 - AMEN and THANK YOU! Could not have expressed it better myself about the anti-Vista crowd. I surmise they're the same posters who always say, "I don't see the use for this." How much less constructive can you get?

FANTASTIC program - GREAT timing! Have been contemplating upgrading my very old Visio version but have been very hesitant about the price and its general user-unfriendliness. EDraw gives much easier, much better, much nicer looking results than Visio. Installed it on my Vista 64-bit system without a hitch. GREAT selection, GAOTD - Thank You Very Much!

Best giveaway for quite some time. Thanks GAOTD!!
Easy download and activation. No problems observed on vista. Great addition to any organization. Easy learning curve to use, but could take some time and practice to learn the full capabilities. Highly recommend.