Ventana software support forum

Posted: **Wed Apr 29, 1998 12:03 pm**

Does anyone know of a PC based causal loop diagraming tool, and its
details?

I have noticed many articles that include neat C-L diagrams but have
been unable to easily produce them myself. Details of a stand alone
package, or a package which includes the ability to draw C-L diagrams
would be appreciated. I am currently using iThink 5.0 which does not
appear to allow the creation of stand-alone C-L diagrams.

Thanks in advance

Bruce Campbell

--
Bruce Campbell
Joint Research Centre for Advanced Systems Engineering
Macquarie University 2109
Australia

E-mail: Bruce.Campbell@mq.edu.au
Ph: +61 2 9850 9107
Fax: +61 2 9850 9102

Posted: **Wed Apr 29, 1998 4:41 pm**

At 12:03 PM 6/29/98 +1100, you wrote:
>Does anyone know of a PC based causal loop diagraming tool, and its
>details?
>

Use Vensim.
If you do not want to actually build a model,
use "Visio", which has great Arc and Pencil Lines facilities.

Then - You could do it nicely with Excel, using the Drawing
bits. The nice thing is that Excel has a "Print to
fit the page" feature as well.

Maarten Hamersma
Systems Engineer
Columbus Stainless, South Africa
mailto:hamersma.maarten@columbus.co.za
mailto:mhamer@lantic.co.za
+27 13 247 2235 (office)
+27 13 245 1300 (home)
+27 13 246 1108 (fax)

Posted: **Wed Apr 29, 1998 5:20 pm**

Bruce Campbell wrote:
>
> Does anyone know of a PC based causal loop diagraming tool, and its
> details?

How about Visio?

Niall.

--
If we gain something, it was there from the beginning.
If we lose something, it is hidden nearby.

Niall Palfreyman mailto:Niall.Palfreyman@assyst-intl.com
assyst GmbH, Henschelring 15a
85551 Kirchheim bei Muenchen Tel: ++49-89-90505-230
Germany. Fax: ++49-89-90505-102/3

Posted: **Thu Apr 30, 1998 1:38 am**

Hi Bruce -
Ive found that paper/pencil or hexagons work best for roughing and testing
the CLD out, and when youre ready to create a presentation, believe it or
not, Powerpoint works great! Make your loops as circles, fill in your text
boxes with background color, and use small triangles as your arrowheads. You
can make both simple and complex CLDs look as good or better as any you see in
published print.

If youre deadset on using an electronic sketch tool, Ive used Facilitation
Graphics for Systems Thinking, a hexagon and CLDing tool by GKA Inc
(www.gka.com). Its pretty good. Requires Visio engine, so be prepared to
spend about $400 for the total package.

From: Alafrenz@aol.com

Posted: **Thu Apr 30, 1998 8:34 am**

hi Bruce

the POWERSIM dynamic modelling software package has the facility for
drawing causal loop (influence) diagrams. it also has the facility
to draw hexagons & hexagon clusters for issues generation (preceding
the CLD stage).

(see their web site: www.powersim.no )

alternatively you could use POWERPOINT which is part of Microsofts
office package

regards, Bob

Dr Bob Cavana
Director, Master of Management Studies in Decision Sciences
School of Business and Public Management, Victoria University of Wellington,
PO Box 600, Wellington, NEW ZEALAND
Tel: +64 4 4955137; Fax: +64 4 4955253; E-mail: bob.cavana@vuw.ac.nz
http://www.vuw.ac.nz/mgmt/staff/cavana_b/

Posted: **Mon Jun 29, 1998 7:36 am**

Bruce Campbell wrote:

> Does anyone know of a PC based causal loop diagraming tool, and its
> details?
>

Well, tehres always VENSIM, which allows CLD structure, but also lets
you model straight from there (a nightmare, actually!). You need a lot
of experience, much more than I have, to mix CLD and SF structure in the
same model ... but, that said, it does both exceedingly well.

For straight CLD diagrams for presentation purposes I use VISIO ... its
one of few packages that glues the arrows to the text! That way when you
move stuff around, it deforms and goes together ... very useful for CLD
structure. But its just graphics ... which I use often, I might add.

Steve

--

Stephen B. Wehrenberg, Ph.D.
Chief, Forecasts and Systems, US Coast Guard
Administrative Sciences, The George Washington University
wstephen@erols.com
"Born empowered ... what happened?!?"

Posted: **Mon Jun 29, 1998 9:04 am**

Vensim can create neat causal loop diagrams (as well as stock and flow
diagrams). Also, you can create simulation models from causal
loops,from stock and flows, or any mixture of the two formats.

Regards,
Jim Hines
MIT and LeapTec
From: Jim Hines <jimhines@interserv.com>

Posted: **Mon Jun 29, 1998 9:43 am**

Powersim Constructor 2.5 has such capabilities.

Bill Braun
From: Bill Braun <medprac@hlthsys.com>

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