boxesdiagramsmoderntimelinetikz-pgf
I am trying to draw the attached diagram in Tex (the attached is from Microsoft Word). Happy to make some tweaks, but it needs to look something like this. Thank you very much!
edit: could you give me a link to some good tutorial to use the most appropriate tool in your opinion, knowing what diagram I want to draw ?
Just to provide a basis for solving this. Since I don't read French, I've not tried to figure out the correct style of arrow etc. Just substitute appropriately for Stealth and drop arrows.meta if you don't need it.
\documentclass[tikz,border=10pt,multi]{standalone}
\usepackage{schemabloc}
\usetikzlibrary{quotes,arrows.meta}
\tikzset{%
node distance=5cm,
>=Stealth,
every edge quotes/.append style={midway, below},
}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\sbEntree{E}
\sbBloc{A}{A}{E}
\sbBloc{B}{B}{A}
\sbRelier[$b_1$]{A}{B}
\sbSortie{S}{B}
\sbRelier[$c_1$]{B}{S}
\sbDecaleNoeudy[5]{S}{U}
\sbBlocr{C}{C}{U}
\sbRelieryx{B-S}{C}
\sbBlocr{D}{D}{C}
\sbRelier[$d_1$]{C}{D}
\draw [-] (D) -| (E) ;
\draw (D) -| (E.south);
\draw [->] (E.south) |- (A);
\foreach \i/\j in {A/\alpha,B/\beta,C/\gamma,D/\omega} \node [anchor=north east, font=\scriptsize] at (\i.north east) {$\j$};
\draw ([xshift=2.5mm,yshift=2.5mm]A.south east) coordinate (p1) edge ["$b_2$", ->] (B.west |- p1);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}
Here's a version with a couple more examples and tips from the deprecated arrows library to match schemabloc's.
\documentclass[tikz,border=10pt,multi]{standalone}
\usepackage{schemabloc}
\usetikzlibrary{quotes}
\tikzset{%
node distance=5cm,
every edge quotes/.append style={midway, below},
}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\sbEntree{E}
\sbBloc{A}{A}{E}
\sbBloc{B}{B}{A}
\sbRelier[$b_1$]{A}{B}
\sbSortie{S}{B}
\sbRelier[$c_1$]{B}{S}
\sbDecaleNoeudy[5]{S}{U}
\sbBlocr{C}{C}{U}
\sbRelieryx{B-S}{C}
\sbBlocr{D}{D}{C}
\sbRelier[$d_1$]{C}{D}
\draw (D) -| (E.south);
\draw [sbStyleLien] (E.south) |- (A);
\foreach \i/\j in {A/\alpha,B/\beta,C/\gamma,D/\omega} \node [anchor=north east, font=\scriptsize] at (\i.north east) {$\j$};
\draw ([xshift=2.5mm,yshift=2.5mm]A.south east) coordinate (p1) edge ["$b_2$", sbStyleLien] (B.west |- p1);
\draw ([xshift=-2.5mm,yshift=.5mm]C.south west) coordinate (p2) edge ["$d_2$",sbStyleLien] (D.east |- p2);
\draw ([xshift=5mm,yshift=2.5mm]C.south east) coordinate (p3) edge [sbStyleLien] node [pos=0, anchor=west] {$c_2$} (C.east |- p3);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}
A different approach that also needs a lot of fine tuning.
What does it do? It draws several rings consisting of a varying number of small circles and increases the number of small circles as the radii of the rings grow in such a way that the distribution of the small circles is eventually relatively even. The radii of the small circles are calculated using a sine-wave function that commutes between a radius of zero and 0.5 mm. The sine wave also gets a shift for each of the rings in order to produce the spiral effect.
\documentclass[tikz]{standalone}
\usetikzlibrary{calc}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\pgfmathsetmacro\maxradius{.5}
\foreach \stepy in {10, ..., 30}
\pgfmathsetmacro\stepstart{60/\stepy}
\pgfmathsetmacro\steplast{360-\stepstart}
\pgfmathsetmacro\stepcount{floor(360/\stepstart)}
\foreach \stepx in {0, \stepstart, ..., \steplast}
\pgfmathsetmacro\stepsingle{floor(\stepx/\stepstart)}
\pgfmathsetmacro\stepradius{(\maxradius/2)*cos(deg(\stepsingle*pi/(\stepcount/2) - pi - (\stepy/5))) + (\maxradius/2)}
\fill[green] (\stepx:\stepy mm) circle (\stepradius mm);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}
Edited to give it a more of a 3D effect:
\documentclass[tikz]{standalone}
\usetikzlibrary{calc}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\pgfmathsetmacro\maxradius{.5}
\foreach \stepy in {10, ..., 30}
\pgfmathsetmacro\stepstart{60/\stepy}
\pgfmathsetmacro\steplast{360-\stepstart}
\pgfmathsetmacro\stepcount{floor(360/\stepstart)}
\foreach \stepx in {0, \stepstart, ..., \steplast}
\pgfmathsetmacro\stepsingle{floor(\stepx/\stepstart)}
\pgfmathsetmacro\stepradius{(\maxradius/2)*cos(deg(\stepsingle*pi/(\stepcount/2) - pi - (\stepy/5))) + (\maxradius/2)}
\fill[green] ({\stepx+.25*\stepcount}:\stepy mm) circle (\stepradius mm);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}
In the original picture, the inner circles are smaller and closer together. I guess, it is not too difficult to achieve this effect.
Best Answer
As it was said,
tikzandpgfwill work nicely. You will find documentation here. I suggest that you start reading about nodes. For instance start withsee what it produces and tweak around...