How do you do those nice layout pictures?

Hmm, could you link to one or two examples of what you mean?

Sure. Sorry
E.g. the one here of cbscpe

Dr. Jeffyl does quite a lot.

Ah, they could well be Eagle circuit diagrams. But Dr J will doubtless clarify!

(Eagle is free for personal use, up to a certain size of PCB.)

Are you referring to the content itself or how it is attached to the message?

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x86?  We ain't got no x86.  We don't NEED no stinking x86!

I hope I'm answering the right question! The images I post are produced with Paint Shop Pro, an image editor comparable to Photoshop or GIMP. Sometimes I start with a screen capture and modify it; other times I draw by hand (greatly assisted by the clone brush and a long list of other tricks). When motion is required I use PSP's companion program, Animation Shop.

-- Jeff(from my "Visual Guide to 65xx CPU Timing")

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In 1988 my 65C02 got six new registers and 44 new full-speed instructions!
https://laughtonelectronics.com/Arcana/ ... mmary.html

Oh, wow! I am impressed - didn't expect these diagrams to be the product of Photoshop. I expected some layout software...

@BDD: Attachings pics to msg is clear. I just look for a convenient way to draw a piece of layout so I could post it here.

@BigEd: so far I'm still to "frightened" to give Eagle a go. It looks like a lot of training & practice might be needed.

Different tools suit different goals. Schematic drawings created automatically (such as by Eagle) reflect actual CAD data already generated as part of the work flow. In contrast, the example drawings I posted are readable and writable by humans only -- not by machines. I like how PSP allows me to be very expressive in how I present an idea. But there's no automatic error-checking or anything like that. I do follow some simple design rules to keep my schematics tidy.

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In 1988 my 65C02 got six new registers and 44 new full-speed instructions!
https://laughtonelectronics.com/Arcana/ ... mmary.html

I use GIMP for image-processing software, but I never bothered to learn to draw with it. My CAD has a schematic-capture portion as probably all do, but there are things about all schematic-capture programs that I don't like, so I still do my schematics by hand, doing the biggest ones on a large drawing board. I draw quite small to get the most complex circuits on an 18"x24" velum (and may mark in the title box something like, "Page 1 of 2"), not going any larger because I don't have the room. Kinko's can make photocopies up to at least 48" wide, with the length being even greater, on bond paper, unlike the old blueprint process.

A neighbor gave me a used scanner I use frequently to digitize hand-drawn diagrams, but it won't even go up to 11"x17", let alone 18"x24". After a page is scanned, I use GIMP to get rid of the stray marks, make the background totally white (so data is not wasted showing the grain of the paper), etc.. An example on my website is the basic whole-computer schematic at http://wilsonminesco.com/6502primer/pot ... ml#BAS_CPU which I drew on an 11x17" paper and then reduced on a photocopier before scanning. I got very proficient at using OrCAD for schematics at my last place of work, but will not go back to it.

Jeff seems to be the .gif expert around here, generating the nice repeating motion-picture diagrams.

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http://WilsonMinesCo.com/ lots of 6502 resources
The "second front page" is http://wilsonminesco.com/links.html .
What's an additional VIA among friends, anyhow?

Don't be frightened. Download it, get it running, and follow along while you watch a tutorial or two. It doesn't take long to get the hang of the basics of schematic entry. And it is very useful if you ever want to play with hardware.