UML drawing tool

[Stuart Dootson]

BoUML[^] - the price is right...

[RealNMN]

StarUML on sourceforge.net

[Jay B]

I have use and evaluated many UML CASE tools and for the money my vote is on Enterprise Architect from www.sparxsystems.com.au. If you are looking for a free tool take a look at poseidon for uml

Jay Springfield, IL

[Wauna]

I too, am in the process of trying to locate a UML tool. I have used tried Visio, StarUML and UMLPad. I have been trying a free tool called UMLPad. It's very basic, but does the basics pretty well. It's very portable, and does not require an install, and can convert to images for inserting into emails or design documents. To my knowledge, it does not do any reverse engineering, or code generation. It's really a step above pen and paper, but for some that is what is needed. I also tried StarUML for a bit. It is a step above UMLPad and offers many more features. To be honest, I'm the kind of person that just wants to get the job done and I found that with UMLPad I was faster. StarUML does have many more features though that might be a closer match for what you are looking for. I also used visio for a short time. I didn't pay for it though. When the time elapsed and I needed to shell out the money, I just couldn't do it. The free options just seemed to make more sense. Hope that helps, ~ Wauna? ~

[Mustafa Ismail Mustafa]

Shog9 wrote:

The severed heads of those who oppose me.

Have you been taking your feel good sweets Josh? :~

"Every time Lotus Notes starts up, somewhere a puppy, a kitten, a lamb, and a baby seal are killed. Lotus Notes is a conspiracy by the forces of Satan to drive us over the brink into madness. The CRC-32 for each file in the installation includes the numbers 666." Gary Wheeler "The secret to a long and healthy life is simple. Don't get ill and don't die." Pete O'Hanlon, courtesy of Rama "I realised that all of my best anecdotes started with "So there we were, pissed". Pete O'Hanlon

[Andy Brummer]

To crush your enemies -- See them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women! That or the satisfaction of charting out a well designed database schema in UML.

This blanket smells like ham

[User 3959169]

I have played around with several tools, and I have an aversion to buying software unless I absolutely cannot find something open source. I used StarUML, but wasn't overly please with its functionality on the round-trip for c#. I settled on the topcoder UML tool, works well with Java and C# [^]

[Ernest Laurentin]

I'll recommend it as well

God bless, Ernest Laurentin

[Steve Floyd]

I've used Computer Associates - ERwin Data Modeler for many years. It is fairly buggy and UI is weak, but I've learned what not to do and can whip-out diagrams in no time. It's really good at reverse engineering an existing DB.

[rikimaru55]

If you work with Java, i really recommend JUDE Community, really nifty, it generates Java Classes, and does a lot of other diagrams like Sequence, Use Case, etc... :)

[leJuan]

i second that!

[Kent K]

Some previous Q and A's here on codeproject.

[tbutterworth]

Whatever you do, stay away from Borland Together. Someone in our IT department decided it was the standard tool we all had to use and it's an absolute pain - buggy and a pain to use.

[jonty2]

Generics I assume you are talking about templates, not .NET That could be true, our code base does not use a lot of templates (especially not extended template stuff like partial specialisation ) due to the very wide-ranging compile environments it needs to work in. So would not have really tested Star's capability there.

[oliver stockleySSP]

Netbeans (free) has a UML tool

[v6Max]

It was having a problem digesting this sort of thing... public class madoDbObjectList<T> { private Boolean fLazyCollection = false; protected Dictionary<string, T> fItems; protected string fSql = ""; public Int32 Count { get { return fItems.Count; } } public System.Collections.IEnumerable Items() { foreach (string itemId in fItems.Keys) yield return fItems[itemId]; } public Boolean Lazy { get { return fLazyCollection; } } public string Sql { get { return fSql; } } internal madoDbObjectList(Boolean aLazyCollection) { fLazyCollection = aLazyCollection; fItems = new Dictionary<string,T>(); } } I've just grabbed the Enterprise Architect trial and that does'nt have a problem and seems very poweful but of course is a "cost option"

drummer -> photographer -> track day addict

[Rob Grainger]

For a UML Drawing tool with no modelling facilities - i.e. just the ability to create great looking diagrams, I'd recommend Visio with the stencils available at Software Stencils. Of course, no reverse engineering, no model validation or such like, but it's the only tool I know that actually supports all the UML 2.0 diagrams. Personally, I found modelling just doesn't work properly with any existing tool (maybe OK for Java or C#, but C++ is too much of a struggle). I now just use UML for quick sketches to communicate ideas, and this approach works perfectly for that.

[Stefan_Lang]

I am using EA as well, but I have to agree it's UI (in the forums referred to as 'unique interface') does take time to get used to. There are lots of UI inconsistencies that take a while to learn, and sometimes certain properties are hard to find or spread over various non-obvious places. The forum however is very good, so this is the first place you should look for an answer once you encounter a problem (usually within 5 minutes of installation ;) ) I like EA's ability to import existing code into class diagrams which is very helpful for analyzing legacy code. I also use EA to generate or synchronize C++ code although I did spot a couple of obvious errors regarding preprocessor statementss or using directives (I reported both some time ago and apparently the former cannot be easily fixed while the latter may or may not have been addressed in the current version - didn't update in a while) I have worked with TogetherJ, Rational Rose and Rhapsody (from LogicWorks) before, and of these Rhapsody was the best by far. But also the most expensive, unfortunately. So unless the management is actually asking you to evaluate a proper UML tool (and willing to fork out cash in the five digit range - per developer), EA would still be a reasable choice. I've spotted the VisualParadigm website as well, but never bothered to evaluate it (likely it didn't have a particualr feature we needed, don't recall what it was). So I cannot judge whether it's more useful and worth the money. Most likely it depends on what you have in mind, so consider evaluating it.

[jonjones76]

EA. An update has recently been made available to (7.1) and I haven't had a problem with it. Very useful for reverse and forwarding engineering, also very useful for quickly generating content for documentation

[urbane tiger]

Rob - yeah, but you're talking serious money if you're a freelancer whose expected to supply their own tools. visio std $AU320 ($290USD), pro $AU870 (800USD) smartdraw (near clone) $AU240 (215USD) Those are RRP's, but even discounted, $200+ is a few good donners However I agree with your sentiments - I don't expect a design tool to build the software for me, any more than an architect expects his CAD tool to build the house - at best it'll provide a shopping list. rgds phil