- It uses a human readable text-based file format renderable via the PlantUML jar. Friendly to CLI and git.
- The diagrams are stylable, should you wish to style them.
- There's a PlantUML Integration IntelliJ plugin that's easy to use for preview/rendering[2]
- Overall simple to use, but I imagine it can as robust as you want it to be. For example, the IntelliJ plugin Sketch.it automatically generates PlantUML diagrams from Java source code[3], and the source code for how it works is available on BitBucket if you want to know how it works[4]
I've seen other people suggest Mermaid.JS[5] before, but I haven't used it so I can't say how it is.
If you're going to monospace lists (why?) please format them to remove the horizontal scroll bar.
Edited to remove example that still produces scroll bar on non-maximized windows (and mobile).
0-_-0 1620 days ago [-]
Haha I'm on mobile, so you'd need to do 4 words per line
awinder 1620 days ago [-]
Yeah this still has the horizontal scrollbar on a 920px wide browser window on desktop. People really need to cut it out with this though. There's no guideline on not using monospaced lists, and you're not the grandmaster of hackernews, so bugger off and just don't read the comment if you don't like it.
pc86 1620 days ago [-]
I'm just trying to suggest ways to make it easier to read the comment. I suggest you read comments giving the poster the benefit of the doubt, you'll probably be much happier than telling people to bugger off.
wizzwizz4 1619 days ago [-]
Assume good faith. Without that, you can't get anything done with strangers.
jeannekamikaze 1615 days ago [-]
The PlantUML Website used to look like you were about to download a whole bunch of malware into your computer, but the software is really great. Diagrams are simple text files that are then rendered by the tool. This frees you from having to drag and drop circles and arrows into an editor, and allows you to easily version-control your diagrams.
kodablah 1619 days ago [-]
> There's a PlantUML Integration IntelliJ plugin that's easy to use for preview/rendering
Can confirm that OmniGraffle is excellent. Downside is that after my departure from MacOSX towards Linux my diagrams are lost in the silo I created them in.
Since then using draw.io, yed and Inkscape.
Tarks 1620 days ago [-]
My vote for Lucid, got my company to switch from Draw.io. Nearly everything works how I expect it to which is just not true when it comes to the other online diagram tools
tentboy 1620 days ago [-]
+1 for lucid charts.
I used the free trial a few years ago for a senior design class and was incredibly happy with it, which is saying a lot as I was consistently sleep deprived and irritated by most things at the time.
masukomi 1620 days ago [-]
OmniGraffle is freaking amazing. If you're on a mac then RUN (don't walk) to grab a copy and try it out.
it's also SO much more than just UML. I have found SO many uses for it.
mcphage 1619 days ago [-]
> OmniGraffle is freaking amazing.
On the whole I like OmniGraffle, but I _hate_ the curves that it draws. If I use it to make a diagram, I have to spend so much time making the curved lines between shapes not look like shit.
It does not support all the diagrams yet, but it's completely themable and you can code away your diagrams like you would with dot/graphviz.
It integrates well into any Markdown tool, Gitlab integrated it about a year ago so it's natively available in Gitlab flavored Markdow.
billziss 1619 days ago [-]
Any comparisons of Mermaid vs other tools? Why do you like Mermaid?
I use Plantuml myself and I find that I regularly have to fight with the layout engine to get diagrams to looks the way I want them too.
IshKebab 1619 days ago [-]
Mermaid is a bit nicer than PlantUML in that it isn't a Java blob that spits out PNGs. Easier to integrate into web things. Also the default style is much nicer.
But I think PlantUML is more capable.
soapboxrocket 1620 days ago [-]
I've been using mermaid for almost 2 years now, great software and still improving. It's nice too that I can keep the code in a note and change in in meetings.
kevlar1818 1620 days ago [-]
Honestly just change the default styling in PlantUML[1]. The default styling turns a lot of people off, which is a shame because it's a fantastic tool. Even the monochromatic skin is much easier on the eye. The real benefit to PlantUML is the ability to commit the source code for your diagrams alongside your actual source code.
Favorite feature: automatically reorganize the chart according to your preferences/constraints (e.g. fewer line intersections, hub-spoke, hierarchical, etc)
skrebbel 1620 days ago [-]
Would like to second yed. I've been told that it feels a bit non-native outside Windows, but it's so fast to make diagrams with it, it's nuts.
It has some weird defaults though, eg the "create node on click" is weird. Turn that off :-)
It has lovely alignment features, making it super easy to make clear diagrams. It doesn't align things to a grid, but to surrounding nodes/edges in a really nice way. Try putting two nodes besides one another, and then a third one next to it. It'll auto-align the spacing so the three boxes are evenly spaced.
ygra 1619 days ago [-]
(yWorks employee and developer (though not on yEd) here.)
Thanks for the kind words. One note: yEd does have grid snapping (look for the grid-like icon in the toolbar or View > Grid). Personally, though, I rarely need the grid, as the normal snapping features work rather well for quickly making things line up or the same size. Also, automatic layout takes care of many alignment needs :-)
There's also Tools > Snap to Grid for a one-time grid snapping operation of everything (or a selection). Didn't even know that one existed until now.
skrebbel 1619 days ago [-]
Well aware, but like you said,you don't need the grid because the gridless snapping generally works even better.
Compliment the team for a great app! Inventing great UX isn't trivial and you guys aced it.
tannhaeuser 1619 days ago [-]
yEd isn't exactly modern-looking though. I've recently used it on Ubuntu 16.04 but my colleague on Ubuntu 18.04 couldn't because the menu or window handles were cut off. As IntelliJ shows, using Java/Swing is no excuse for an app to look like a Windows 3.1 app migrated over to Windows95. But then UML is from a time and mindset when win32-like and Java-like OOP and Hungary notation were sold to people and I guess a certain amount of retro design must feel authentic to UML.
ygra 1619 days ago [-]
(Disclaimer: yWorks employee and developer here)
We do have a more modern web-based graph editor: https://www.yworks.com/yed-live/ It may lack features you need, as the idea was a less cluttered and more modern UI, not to bring over everything and the kitchen sink.
As far as yEd Desktop goes, Java becomes an increasingly unattractive platform for desktop development, with Swing showing varying degrees of brokenness on different platforms and Java releases. The new hotness right now seems to be to either get working printing or working High-DPI support, but not both in the same Java release.
It's due for a minor UI overhaul, though, and this may come in the future. We probably cannot and won't completely restructure yEd's UI (such things also serve well to piss off long-time users).
tannhaeuser 1619 days ago [-]
If Java becomes increasingly unattractive, what are you eying as replacement? I won't defend Java/Swing, but at least it does HiDPI (in contrast to eg. JavaFX and RCP last I checked, even though printing is broken w/ HiDPI as you said). There aren't that many alternatives for cross-platform desktop apps (qtk comes to mind, but it's a rather big departure from Java I guess).
ygra 1619 days ago [-]
For us the most attractive option would probably be to wrap yEd Live in Electron. We're not a large team and rewriting yEd with something else is a major undertaking (especially for a tool given away for free). That makes it hard to justify development costs.
Personally, I'm still hoping for Microsoft to see the need for a good cross-platform managed-code UI toolkit. Perhaps they're open to funding or adopting Avalonia. But perhaps that's just me being open to rewriting an aging Java application in C# ;-)
tannhaeuser 1619 days ago [-]
Interesting. Btw I have an old half-finished Java Swing diagramming (not UML) app lying around waiting to see the light of the day in ... this millenium hopefully ;)
Electron is surprisingly good-behaving and I get that it's of course attractive to develop mostly a web app that can also be deployed as desktop app, but isn't entirely without problems (for one, it isn't accepted in the App Store as it is). Things always look brighter on the other side of the fence, but throwing away your whole Java code base is kindof gross. Maybe we Java old schoolers could push JetBrains to open their Swing refactorings (of which I suppose there must be many) or sell their renovated Swing + Addons as a rich desktop appdev product. It's only in their best interest for Swing to have a future. And as IntelliJ shows, Swing isn't half bad a GUI toolkit in the hands of competent developers.
pjmlp 1619 days ago [-]
Not only IntelliJ, "Filthy Rich Clients" (http://filthyrichclients.org/) is a must read for anyone that cares about doing proper UIs in Swing.
I also use yEd for UML and other related diagrams. As mentioned the auto-organization is great, and you can also separately re-route signals and labels.
I have used yEd for hardware diagrams as well, although I still haven't found a great way to draw out busses of signals between nodes (to be clear I haven't found anything besides manual drawing which works!)
ygra 1619 days ago [-]
There's a bus-like edge router under Layout > Edge Routing > Orthogonal / Bus-style. This may require some tweaking of the settings for your particular drawing. https://i.imgur.com/YV3NFAQ.png
roland35 1619 days ago [-]
Thanks for the tip! That looks good! After playing around I found what I was actually thinking about is called "channels" and it works well!
Not OP, but I'd say that it is in a text-ish format that can be fed into a generator that can turn the document into code. Some of these UML editors spit out a PNG, which is pretty but useless for code generation or automated use of the information.
contingencies 1619 days ago [-]
You should really ask yourself why you're drawing UML diagrams at all.
You know, there are lots of people selling snake-oil, drawing boxes and arrows that make you feel good, but ultimately have no real meaning. If something is really meaningful you should be able to express it in mathematics. - Leslie Lamport
If you need to visualize, take more precise states as a basis and take a look at graphviz[0]. If you need to model multi-agent systems, use mscgen[1] to draw Message Sequence Charts.
I'll second graphviz, aside from it's standalone strengths it integrates well with doxygen and the two combined make for some great documentation.
I use it for sequence charts as well by using sublabels (not sure what they're really called), usually I don't care so much about the sequence but where the choke points in this giant pile of steaming enterprise are:
I have used UMLet since 2005. The diagrams won't win a beauty contest, but they are quick to edit and depict the necessary information. https://www.umlet.com/
From the UMLet web page:
> UMLet is a free, open-source UML tool with a simple user interface: draw UML diagrams fast, build sequence and activity diagrams from plain text, export diagrams to eps, pdf, jpg, svg, and clipboard, share diagrams using Eclipse, and create new, custom UML elements. UMLet runs stand-alone or as Eclipse plug-in on Windows, OS X and Linux.
Also draw.io templates and a set of Visio templates ( https://github.com/pihalve/c4model-visio-stencil ) that can be imported into Lucidcharts as well. There is also some web based tools (see bottom of C4 website).
I mostly use it to draw small diagrams for code comments if it makes things clearer but it's one of these small little macOS app gems.
A very small niche and well done as a beautiful native Mac app.
masukomi 1620 days ago [-]
I love monodraw, but i don't know if it counts as "modern looking" Yes, the rendered versions of the output look reasonably good, but there are still some rough edges, like trying to create a "diamond" shape to put text in (typical decision point in flow chart) ends up with a HUGE diamond.
also, i see it as primarily useful for generating ASCII diagrams for inserting into source code or docs. If you don't care about that tools like OmniGraffle do a much better job.
ccakes 1620 days ago [-]
And an absolute steal (for what is it) at the standard sale price.
swalsh 1620 days ago [-]
There's quite a few. Obviously Visio is popular, on Linux I've used a tool called "Dia" (http://dia-installer.de/) there are several others, but these are my 2 go to tools for UML.
cher14 1620 days ago [-]
You might also like www.breakdown-notes.com. It is not as focused on diagrams as draw.io (and others), but is rather nice if you want to make something inbetween notes and diagrams. (so I say as the owner of breakdown-notes).
It would help this discussion if people made a distinction between software that creates diagrams from version-controlled code (e.g. PlantUML, MermaidJS), and software that just creates diagrams.
It doesn't support standard UML diagrams but between sketch mode [1] [2] and icons [3] you may be pleasantly surprised. I personally use it to map out Kumu's own internal application structure and flows.
Full disclosure: I am the lead developer and cofounder of Kumu.
If enough people are interested I'm happy to do a webinar specifically for the HN crowd and do a deep dive on the technicals. Built on top of CouchDB and pretty neat stack overall.
javierluraschi 1620 days ago [-]
nomnoml: A tool for drawing sassy UML diagrams based on syntax. Provides instant feedback and has a customizable styling.
Well, http://plantuml.com/en/ is, imo, the most efficient and maintenable way to produce UML diagram
scaryclam 1620 days ago [-]
I use lucidchart for most diagramming. There's a free clone, draw.io, which is also pretty good if you need more objects but don't want to pay out for an account on lucidchart.
ako 1620 days ago [-]
PowerPoint , I often use animations to explain complex diagrams.
corebit 1620 days ago [-]
I second this. I have used PowerPoint for some very complex architectural diagrams and transitions over time and it has been a great tool. Definitely not perfect, but is pretty fun to use most of the time.
nyxcharon 1620 days ago [-]
The best free tool I've used is Draw.io[1], can create diagrams online or offline and has nice integrations with things like OwnCloud.
If you don't mind paying for something and want something that looks great visually, I would recommend Lucid Chart [2]
For windows 10 you have the WhiteStarUML[1], but is not updated since March/2018. You can get and idea of the interface and check if the UML fits your definition of "modern looking".
And what for do you need UML (and what type diagrams)?
For example, IDEA products for Java has some tools for class diagrams
MS visio is nice too as tool for just painting UML
But main problem with UML - synchronization with code base
edpichler 1619 days ago [-]
I really wish to find some tool to replace Enterprise Architect that runs, unfortunately, only in Windows.
For me is really important traceability, starting from the requirements.
FeloniousHam 1619 days ago [-]
Monodraw[0] is great for diagrams and general note taking.
draw.io is a free tool both available online at https://www.draw.io/ or you can download a desktop version from https://github.com/jgraph/drawio-desktop/releases. Quite fast and good.
Edited to remove example that still produces scroll bar on non-maximized windows (and mobile).
The VSCode one[0] is good too
0 - https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=jebbs.pl...
However, Lucidcharts has a better UI in that I can build diagrams after in LC than Draw.io. https://www.lucidchart.com/pages/
LC is paid if you need more than 1 chart (who doesn't?). But Draw.io is free. LC is also web-based and is cross-platform.
I've heard OmniGraffle is also excellent (never used it myself) but it only works on OSX/iOS: https://www.omnigroup.com/omnigraffle/
Since then using draw.io, yed and Inkscape.
it's also SO much more than just UML. I have found SO many uses for it.
On the whole I like OmniGraffle, but I _hate_ the curves that it draws. If I use it to make a diagram, I have to spend so much time making the curved lines between shapes not look like shit.
It does not support all the diagrams yet, but it's completely themable and you can code away your diagrams like you would with dot/graphviz.
It integrates well into any Markdown tool, Gitlab integrated it about a year ago so it's natively available in Gitlab flavored Markdow.
I use Plantuml myself and I find that I regularly have to fight with the layout engine to get diagrams to looks the way I want them too.
But I think PlantUML is more capable.
[1]: http://plantuml.com/skinparam
https://www.yworks.com/products/yed
Favorite feature: automatically reorganize the chart according to your preferences/constraints (e.g. fewer line intersections, hub-spoke, hierarchical, etc)
It has some weird defaults though, eg the "create node on click" is weird. Turn that off :-)
It has lovely alignment features, making it super easy to make clear diagrams. It doesn't align things to a grid, but to surrounding nodes/edges in a really nice way. Try putting two nodes besides one another, and then a third one next to it. It'll auto-align the spacing so the three boxes are evenly spaced.
Thanks for the kind words. One note: yEd does have grid snapping (look for the grid-like icon in the toolbar or View > Grid). Personally, though, I rarely need the grid, as the normal snapping features work rather well for quickly making things line up or the same size. Also, automatic layout takes care of many alignment needs :-)
There's also Tools > Snap to Grid for a one-time grid snapping operation of everything (or a selection). Didn't even know that one existed until now.
Compliment the team for a great app! Inventing great UX isn't trivial and you guys aced it.
We do have a more modern web-based graph editor: https://www.yworks.com/yed-live/ It may lack features you need, as the idea was a less cluttered and more modern UI, not to bring over everything and the kitchen sink.
As far as yEd Desktop goes, Java becomes an increasingly unattractive platform for desktop development, with Swing showing varying degrees of brokenness on different platforms and Java releases. The new hotness right now seems to be to either get working printing or working High-DPI support, but not both in the same Java release.
It's due for a minor UI overhaul, though, and this may come in the future. We probably cannot and won't completely restructure yEd's UI (such things also serve well to piss off long-time users).
Personally, I'm still hoping for Microsoft to see the need for a good cross-platform managed-code UI toolkit. Perhaps they're open to funding or adopting Avalonia. But perhaps that's just me being open to rewriting an aging Java application in C# ;-)
And being aware of component libraries like JGoodies (http://www.jgoodies.com/).
I have used yEd for hardware diagrams as well, although I still haven't found a great way to draw out busses of signals between nodes (to be clear I haven't found anything besides manual drawing which works!)
http://docs.yworks.com/yfiles/doc/developers-guide/figures/c...
For shareable web editing, LucidChart or Draw.io.
For quick easy text markup, PlantUML or Mermaid.
I have not found any UML tool that's pretty, shareable, round-trippable, and has easy text markup.
Demo of PlantUML: https://github.com/joelparkerhenderson/demo_plantuml.
You know, there are lots of people selling snake-oil, drawing boxes and arrows that make you feel good, but ultimately have no real meaning. If something is really meaningful you should be able to express it in mathematics. - Leslie Lamport
... via https://github.com/globalcitizen/taoup
If you need to visualize, take more precise states as a basis and take a look at graphviz[0]. If you need to model multi-agent systems, use mscgen[1] to draw Message Sequence Charts.
[0] https://graphviz.org/
[1] http://www.mcternan.me.uk/mscgen/
I use it for sequence charts as well by using sublabels (not sure what they're really called), usually I don't care so much about the sequence but where the choke points in this giant pile of steaming enterprise are:
From the UMLet web page:
> UMLet is a free, open-source UML tool with a simple user interface: draw UML diagrams fast, build sequence and activity diagrams from plain text, export diagrams to eps, pdf, jpg, svg, and clipboard, share diagrams using Eclipse, and create new, custom UML elements. UMLet runs stand-alone or as Eclipse plug-in on Windows, OS X and Linux.
UMLetino runs UMLet in a web browser. Refer to the UMLet FAQ and sample diagrams for help. http://www.umletino.com/umletino.html
Also draw.io templates and a set of Visio templates ( https://github.com/pihalve/c4model-visio-stencil ) that can be imported into Lucidcharts as well. There is also some web based tools (see bottom of C4 website).
A very small niche and well done as a beautiful native Mac app.
also, i see it as primarily useful for generating ASCII diagrams for inserting into source code or docs. If you don't care about that tools like OmniGraffle do a much better job.
It doesn't support standard UML diagrams but between sketch mode [1] [2] and icons [3] you may be pleasantly surprised. I personally use it to map out Kumu's own internal application structure and flows.
Full disclosure: I am the lead developer and cofounder of Kumu.
[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX3kbCyOamQ (Gene Bellinger's intro to Kumu's sketch mode)
[2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFOz67co0yA (Benjamin Mosior sketching wardley maps in Kumu)
[3]: https://docs.kumu.io/guides/icons.html (Kumu docs on Font Awesome support)
web: http://www.nomnoml.com/
js: https://github.com/skanaar/nomnoml
r: https://github.com/javierluraschi/nomnoml
https://sequencediagram.org/
https://whimsical.com/
UML Diagramming Software for Windows: https://www.ilovefreesoftware.com/29/featured/free-uml-desig...
Online UML Digaramming Tools: https://www.ilovefreesoftware.com/22/webware/free-websites-t...
If you don't mind paying for something and want something that looks great visually, I would recommend Lucid Chart [2]
[1]: https://draw.io
[2]: https://www.lucidchart.com
[1] https://sourceforge.net/projects/whitestaruml/
[1] https://avdi.codes/tools-for-turning-descriptions-into-diagr...
(I make GoJS, a diagramming library, but it presumes nothing about "looks", which can be modified arbitrarily)
For more advanced diagrams I use Enterprise Architect (https://www.sparxsystems.eu/).
And what for do you need UML (and what type diagrams)?
For example, IDEA products for Java has some tools for class diagrams
MS visio is nice too as tool for just painting UML
But main problem with UML - synchronization with code base
[0] https://monodraw.helftone.com/