Tool for drawing timing diagrams

Question

Recently I am working with a hardware design group developing an ASIC. And I am drawing a lot of timing diagrams for which I am using Microsoft Excel, as it is easy to import into Word document. But, things are getting more and more difficult with Excel.

What can be used to draw timing diagrams? Is there any easy tool out there?

score 27 · Answer 1 · edited Jan 22 '15 at 12:20

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WaveDrom is a free and open source online digital timing diagram rendering engine that uses JavaScript, HTML5 and SVG to convert WaveJSON input text description into SVG vector graphics.

edited Jan 22 '15 at 12:20

e19293001

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answered Jun 29 '13 at 20:59

drom

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A picture is worth a thousand words: http://wavedrom.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/editor.html A pefect tool to combine with RestructuredText/Sphinx – vermaete Jul 03 '13 at 12:42
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Except when the picture doesn't exist. ;) Possible to relink this? – jeffberhow Jan 25 '19 at 05:32
Wow I was looking for one of these for long long time.... thanks bro – Mitu Raj Jun 09 '21 at 19:46

score 14 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 22 '13 at 21:03

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I have the same problem and tried the following tools:

drawtiming
timing (LaTeX)
tikz-timing (LaTeX)
Microsoft Visio

After trying all these I now ended up using Visio and pen&pencil. All other programs lacked support for adding arrows/relationships between signals easily. In Visio, such things are absolutely easy. And you can export the diagrams directly to PowerPoint or even as PDF for using them in LaTeX.

edited Jul 22 '13 at 21:03

Peter Mortensen

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answered Oct 06 '09 at 13:12

skorgon

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I just checked out drawtiming, thanks for the tip! It seems a nice neat package, a bit like graphviz for timing diagrams. It'll do arrows now too by the looks of things! I once tried to get the Latex things going, but since I don't have admin permissions on my work computer, I'd difficulty installing the modules. – Marty Oct 06 '09 at 23:22
Thank you very much for the Visio tip. I am a moron not to try visio in the first place. I also checked out Drawtiming, it is kind of neat. – Alphaneo Oct 07 '09 at 00:45
For Visio, make sure you use the "real" (desktop) version of Visio, not the web-based Office 365 version. The web-based version is a joke (you can't even connect lines together). Powerpoint is has more powerful drawing features than web Visio. – wisbucky Mar 16 '22 at 22:22

score 10 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 06 '09 at 11:00

If you like LaTeX and don't mind the extra steps to get the generated image into Word (on which I guess you depend), tikz-timing is very nice. I find it very easy to use and the diagrams look very good!

Apart from that, the companies I worked in so far used Visio for this kind of tasks.

score 7 · Answer 4 · edited Jul 22 '13 at 21:05

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The post Re: Visio Timing Diagram has a link to a Visio stencil.

edited Jul 22 '13 at 21:05

Peter Mortensen

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answered Jul 14 '11 at 09:09

Gabi Davar

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score 5 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 06 '09 at 08:19

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drawtiming looks interesting.

answered Oct 06 '09 at 08:19

Peter

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score 5 · Answer 6 · answered Oct 06 '09 at 17:20

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Timing Designer and Timing Diagrammer are the two main commercial programs. They are similar in functions and user interface. Both have OLE and other export capability.

answered Oct 06 '09 at 17:20

Brian Carlton

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The good ones are very expensive. I've never seen a free one that was worth using. Visio or OpenOffice Draw are your best bet. I know my company has created special Visio stencils for doing waveforms (sorry, I can't share them). It's still a pain that way but it's not intolerable. – Steve K Oct 24 '09 at 07:50

score 3 · Answer 7 · edited Mar 16 '22 at 22:29

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I find it necessary to add TimingAnalyzer to the mix. It is only in Beta but at least he is actively developing it. ~T

edited Mar 16 '22 at 22:29

wisbucky

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answered Nov 24 '09 at 19:50

SysTom

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drom · Answer 8 · 2014-09-03T23:40:01.297

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WaveDrom tool, mentioned above, moved to GitHub wavedrom.com.

edited Sep 03 '14 at 23:40

answered Jul 27 '14 at 18:43

drom

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Nitzan Weinberg · Answer 9 · 2016-10-22T16:55:31.450

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Waveme http://waveme.weebly.com/

I just released a new free GUI-based timing diagram drawing tool for Windows (and Linux/MacOS via Wine).

It draws digital waveforms (signals and buses) with gaps, arrows and labels, and is highly customizable.

I hope you find it useful.

edited Oct 22 '16 at 16:55

answered Sep 03 '16 at 19:07

Nitzan Weinberg

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score 2 · Answer 10 · answered Nov 24 '09 at 10:34

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If you are happy with simpler waveforms on a regular grid, you can quickly create something with Timing Font or XWave (linked from the first link). Another option would be Gnome Dia, a simple vector drawing program.

answered Nov 24 '09 at 10:34

cmarqu

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score 1 · Answer 11 · edited Jul 22 '13 at 21:04

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Some time ago we used IGOR for all kinds of measurement data visualization. But it's not for free, if that's a requirement.

edited Jul 22 '13 at 21:04

Peter Mortensen

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answered Oct 06 '09 at 08:22

Frank Bollack

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score 1 · Answer 12 · answered Nov 22 '17 at 18:58

I use an online spreadsheet like Google Docs or Excel for timing diagrams - by making all cells equal width and height and play with the borders of the cell. This is great quick way to explain simple concepts especially during collaborative (online) work.

score 0 · Answer 13 · edited Jul 22 '13 at 21:07

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I've used Timing Designer and Waveformer. They can read basic Verilog files. Waveformer has a decent demo version for Windows. You can't save designs, but you can screen capture them. For very basic timing diagrams, I've used the Visio templates mentioned in other answers.

edited Jul 22 '13 at 21:07

Peter Mortensen

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answered Jan 07 '13 at 19:26

Eric Cope

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score 0 · Answer 14 · answered Sep 01 '16 at 14:43

You can use a "Free Online Digital Diagram Generator" to draw the diagram then copy and past the screen in to your documents. If you want to try a tool that do not need your login or email, and can save your editing for future use. You can try this javascript tool on google. http://hardwarelanguages.blogspot.com/2016/08/free-online-digital-diagram-generator.html

Your digital waveform diagram is saved in the URL encrypted, no one else can see it until your share the links with email/skypee/facebook, and etc.

Tool for drawing timing diagrams

14 Answers14