Can Matlab be used for making Engineering Drawings?

Especially arrows (with their heads touching two parallel ines that are vertical both to the arrow and the object whose dimensions are being indicated; the dimension shown in the blank space in the middle of the arrow)? See attached drawing made by other means (from a Drexel University course document).

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

annotation('arrow') and annotation('text') can be used .

However these use figure coordinates rather than data coordinates which makes them aa nuisance to place properly.

text() can be used to place text in data coordinates .

There are multiple File Exchange contributions for creating arrows including one that creates annotation() arrows given data coordinates and moves them as needed when the axis changes.

[Sree]

Thank you. I am quite familiar with the normalized-coordinates nuissance (and a workaround from the Matlab User Community: Data to Normalized coords ). It'll take a few dance steps to render engineering drawings (like the one in my question) but such rendering can be done. I was hoping that, in light of Matlb's ubiquity in the world of engineering, more facile engineering-drawing tools would be provided.

[John D'Errico]

You make an interesting point. I'd wonder however, if TMW might be prepared to invest sufficient resources in a product that would face heavy competition. I'd see competition from many sources there: AutoCad, SketchUp, Reddit, Photoshop Sketch, Illustrator Draw, Sketchbook, Sketchpad, etc. I'm sure I missed a few. And with all the cheap or even free apps out there, would they want to enter that market segment?

Answer 2

[Sree]

Thanks for the answers. Matlab is strong because of such a generous user community, willing to share expertise and patiently guide those who are inexperienced or are in a hurry. In any case, with "one-finger typing" I managed to solve my annotation problem (see attached Figure). I was not advocating that Matlab compete with Autocad etc. but just increase the users' options a bit.