# Recommend a good program for drawing geometry diagrams

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-good-program-for-drawing-geometry-diagrams/530488>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 26, 2010, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-good-program-for-drawing-geometry-diagrams/530488 "2010-02-26T04:15:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![wolfstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d6d6ee/32.png) [@wolfstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfstu)\
**Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-good-program-for-drawing-geometry-diagrams/530488/1 "2010-02-26T04:15:46Z")

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Dopers,

I’ve got to make some diagrams of the geometry of a situation to explain myself, and I’d like to find some good, free software that can do this (preferably on Windows). By geometry diagrams, I mean with lines, arcs, angles labeled, arrows giving the names and lengths of various radii and segments, etc.

I’ve found some programs to do _almost_ this, but none that can do everything I’ve listed there, or that can do any better than pixelly bitmaps as an output.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

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**Author:** ![audient](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@audient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audient)\
**Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-good-program-for-drawing-geometry-diagrams/530488/2 "2010-02-26T06:45:31Z")

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my son’s high school geometry class used Geometer’s Sketchpad extensively.

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**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-good-program-for-drawing-geometry-diagrams/530488/3 "2010-02-26T10:59:38Z")

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Have you tried [Dia](http://projects.gnome.org/dia/)?

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**Author:** ![j\_sum1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8baadc/32.png) [@j\_sum1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j_sum1)\
**Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-good-program-for-drawing-geometry-diagrams/530488/4 "2010-02-26T11:06:35Z")

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Free online is Geogebra.

> **[GeoGebra - the world’s favorite, free math tools used by over 100 million...](https://www.geogebra.org/)**
>
> Free digital tools for class activities, graphing, geometry, collaborative whiteboard and more

It does everythig you have asked and more.  
Good for graphing functions  
handles polynomial relations up to order two – ie conics  
differentiates algebraically  
draws tangents and normals to any constructable curve  
does all standard compass/straight edge constructions  
handles angles, line segments and vectors of a given size  
possible to trace points and lines to construct envelopes  
able to plot a locus

I have used it to produce tesselations, construct limacons, lemniscates, cardioids, nephrites and cycloids from elementary definitions  
I have used it to demonstrate angle relationships in deductive geometry  
excellent for periodic functions and transformation of functions.  
I have used it for producing random right angled triangles for trigonometry practice

And I have only used about half of its features.

Free and straightforward to use – It was painless and quick to learn.

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**Author:** ![wolfstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d6d6ee/32.png) [@wolfstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfstu)\
**Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-good-program-for-drawing-geometry-diagrams/530488/5 "2010-02-26T22:22:04Z")

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Thanks, everyone, for the suggestions. I gave Geogebra a try, and it seems to do exactly what I need.

Thanks again!