Free Uml Diagram Tool For Mac
UMLet is a free open source UML modelling tool with a very simple user interface that’s easy for beginners to use. The difference between UMLet and other sequence diagram tools is that it allows you to modify diagrams using a text input tool instead of pop-up dialogs. Input or export can be by diagram or Umple textual form, separation of concerns (aspects, traits, mixins), embeds action code in Java and other languages, written in itself, documentation generation, plugin architecture for generators. ArgoUML is the leading open source UML modeling tool and includes support for all standard UML 1.4 diagrams. It runs on any Java platform and is available in ten languages. It runs on any Java platform and is available in ten languages. Draw.io (formerly Diagramly) is free online diagram software. You can use it as a flowchart maker, network diagram software, to create UML online, as an ER diagram tool, to design database schema, to build BPMN online, as a circuit diagram maker, and more. Draw.io can import.vsdx, Gliffy™ and Lucidchart™ files. This sample was created on the Mac in ConceptDraw PRO diagramming and vector drawing software using the UML State Machine Diagram library of the Rapid UML Solution from the Software Development area of ConceptDraw Solution Park. A sophisticated software modeler for agile and concise modeling Download for macOS Download for Windows Download for Linux (64-bit). Compatible with UML 2.x standard metamodel and diagrams: Class, Object, Use Case, Component, Deployment, Composite Structure, Sequence, Communication, Statechart, Activity and Profile Diagram.
It’s never been easier to make a UML online
Used by developers and technical professionals
A unified modeling language (UML) diagram depicts a system and how users or other systems interact with yours—a system could be a website, an app, or maybe a business process. Create a class diagram online to navigate source code, plan new features, and demonstrate the basic flows and tasks within your system. Visualize the high-level current and future state of your product to ensure productive Agile environments for software developers, engineers, data scientists, and other technical professionals.
Save time with UML sequence markup
Our UML diagram maker and sequence markup editor make it faster and easier to understand complexities in code by automating the process of generating a class diagram. Simply build and customize sequence diagrams online from text. Upon entering your markup in the pop-up dialog, Lucidchart will automatically generate a sequence diagram that follows PlantUML standards. Otherwise, you can select and customize a template from the template gallery, then easily rearrange symbols and shapes to reflect the structure of your system.
Standardize your diagrams with our UML shape libraries
When you enable the UML shapes library, you’ll have instant access to industry-standard UML shapes. Unlike other UML software, Lucidchart doesn’t limit or constrain your ideas. Whether you are building UML component, class, deployment, object, or package diagrams, simply drag and drop shapes on to your canvas without worrying about running out of space. Then, show external interactions by placing primary and secondary actors on your canvas, such as customers or data, and draw lines to connect them to each use case.
Explore the benefits of collaboration and documentation
Documentation plays a critical role in the long-term health and sustainability of your system or application. Creating UML diagrams with Lucidchart speeds up onboarding, reduces the number of meetings you schedule, and helps teams communicate ideas quickly in an Agile environment. Our UML diagram tool facilitates the design and documentation processes but also improves how you collect, review, and implement feedback from stakeholders or potential users. Lucidchart is built for real-time collaboration, helping you refine your UML diagrams online with colleagues, whether they use Mac, PC, or Linux.
Present and share
Your system may be complicated, but sharing doesn’t have to be. Customize sharing permissions in Lucidchart and easily invite your colleagues or stakeholders to view your diagram, all without worrying about unwanted edits. Share your document via email or URL, or export your diagram to Jira, Confluence, Slack, or Microsoft Teams. You can also leverage the simple power of Lucidchart presentation mode—present your entire diagram or fill your presentation with focused sections of your diagram for a deeper look at your system.
I'm trying to choose a tool for creating UML diagrams of all flavours. Usability is a major criteria for me, but I'd still take more power with a steeper learning curve and be happy. Free (as in beer) would be nice, but I'd be willing to pay if the tool's worth it. What should I be using?
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50 Answers
Some context: Recently for graduate school I researched UML tools for usability and UML comprehension in general for an independent project. I also model/architect for a living.
The previous posts have too many answers and not enough questions. A common misunderstanding is that UML is about creating diagrams. Sure, diagrams are important, but really you are creating a model. Here are the questions that should be answered as each vendor product/solution does some things better than others. Note: The listed answers are my view as the best even if other products support a given feature or need.
- Are you modeling or drawing? (Drawing - ArgoUML, free implementations, and Visio)
- Will you be modeling in the future? (For basic modeling - Community editions of pay products)
- Do you want to formalize your modeling through profiles or meta-models? OCL? (Sparx, RSM, Visual Paradigm)
- Are you concerned about model portability, XMI support? (GenMyModel, Sparx, Visual Paradigm, Altova)
- Do you have an existing set of documents that you need to work with? (Depends on the documents)
- Would you want to generate code stubs or full functioning code?(GenMyModel, Visual Paradigm, Sparx, Altova)
- Do you need more mature processes such as use case management, pattern creation, asset creation, RUP integration, etc? (RSA/RSM/IBM Rational Products)
Detailed Examples: IBM Rational Software Architect did not implement UML 2.0 all the way when it comes to realizes type relationships when creating a UML profile, but Visual Paradigm and Sparx got it right.
Ok, that was way too detailed, so a simpler example would be ArgoUML, which has no code generation features and focuses on drawing more than the modeling aspect of UML.
Sparx and Visual Paradigm do UML really well and generate code well, however, hooking into project lifecycles and other process is where RSM/RSA is strong.
Watch out for closed or product specific code generation processes or frameworks as you could end up stuck with that product.
This is a straight brain dump so a couple details may not be perfect, however, this should provide a general map to the questions and solutions to looking into.
NEW - Found a good list of many UML tools with descriptions. Wiki UML Tool List
For sequence diagrams, only, try websequencediagrams.com. It's a freemium (free for the basic tasks, paid for advanced features) product, and lets you quickly bang out a diagram without any fussing around with lines and stencils.
For me it's Enterprise Architect from Sparx Systems. A very rounded UML tool for a very reasonable price.
Very strong feature list including: integrated project management, baselining, export/import (including export to html), documentation generation from the model, various templates (Zachman, TOGAF, etc.), IDE plugins, code generation (with IDE plugins available for Visual Studio, Eclipse & others), automation API - the list goes on.
Oh yeah, don't forget support for source control directly from inside the tool (SVN, CVS, TFS & SCC).
I would also stay away from Visio - you only get diagrams, not a model. Rename a class in one place in a UML modelling tool and you rename in all places. This is not the case in Visio!
For my simple & short UML working,I've used this tool:
StarUML - http://staruml.sourceforge.net/en/
Great free software for UML drawing.
Although the original Star UML is no longer maintained, there's now a fork called White Star UML, which is actively developed.
As I usually use UML more as a communication tool rather than a modeling tool I sometimes have the need to flex the language a bit, which makes the strict modeling tools quite unwieldy. Also, they tend to have a large overhead for the occasional drawing. This also means I don't give tools that handle round-trip modeling well any bonus points. With this in mind...
When using Visio, I tend to use these stencils for my UMLing needs (the built in kind of suck). It could be that I have grown used to it as it is the primary diagramming tool at my current assignment.
OmniGraffle also has some UML stencils built in and more are available at Graffletopia, but I wouldn't recommend that as a diagramming tool as it has too many quirks (quirks that are good for many things, but not UML). Free trial though, so by all means... :)
I've been trying out MagicDraw a bit, but while functional, I found the user interface distracting.
Otherwise i find the Topcased an interesting project (or group of projects). Last I used it it still had some bugs, but it worked, and seems to have evolved nicely since. Works great on any Eclipse-enabled platform. Free as in speech and beer :)
As for the diagramming tool Dia, it's quite ugly (interface and resulting drawings), but it does get the job done. An interesting modeling tool free alternative is Umbrello, but I haven't really used it much.
I definitely agree with mashi that whiteboards are great (together with a digital camera or cellphone).
Probably some of the nicest tools I've used belong to the Rational family of tools.
You may be looking for an automated tool that will automatically generate a lot of stuff for you. But here's a free, generally powerful diagramming tool useful not only for UML but for all kinds of diagramming tasks. It accepts as input and outputs to a wide variety of commonly used file formats. It's called yEd, and it's worth a look
I'm very fond of Visual Paradigm for UML It's very powerful and has a free Community Edition and cheap Personal Edition as well.
For Agile modeling there's also Agilian which is a bit more flexible, adds extra features to support smartboards and knows mind-mapping as well.
The thing I like most about their products is the flexibility. I'm using Enterprise Architect at work nowadays but I think it's not smart enough. I want to be able to quick-brainstorm some sequence diagrams and have the application keep my model up-to-date in the background, something VPUML does a very good job at.
In my opinion it's way better than Enterprise Architect, though that is a great tool as well :)
Take a look at BOUML: multiplatform (QT), works pretty well and supports colaborative work.
BOUML is a free UML 2 tool box (under development) allowing you to specify and generate code in C++, Java, Idl, Php and Python.
BOUML runs under Unix/Linux/Solaris, MacOS X(Power PC and Intel) and Windows.
From Wikipedia:
The releases prior to version 4.23 are free software licensed under GPL. BOUML 5 and later is proprietary software.
If you're looking to get out the door and working on UML without having to learn a complex new tool I would check out Violet UML. I've used it to some pretty great success in the past.
PlantUML is an open-source markup-language-to-UML-diagram tool in Java that deserves to be mentioned here. It ranks high on the usability scale because of its intuitive syntax for the various diagrams and diagram components.
Dia is a possible choice. It's definitely not the best tool, but it is functional.
Enterprise Architect from Sparx systems is the best tool I've used. A bit expensive at $199 (professional edition), but IMO it's worth it.
I will add UMLet which I haven't tried yet, but have been selected at my office to start doing diagrams.
Looks simple, diagrams aren't sexy, but it seems quite complete with regard to the kind of diagrams you can do. Seems to have good export capabilities too (important!), is flexible can support custom components) and can be used as Eclipse plugin.
Free Uml Diagram Tool Mac Os X
I haven't been able to find a top-notch free UML diagramming tool, but if you're interested in pure diagramming, as opposed to round-trip-engineering, I'd go with Microsoft Visio. If you want full round-trip engineering, Rational Rose.
This list of UML tools on Wikipedia might also come in handy.
Pen and paper. If you can get the scan into a vector format, that may be useful when making minor amendments.
Best Free Uml Tool
You should try Creately. Runs in your browser and can do team collaboration.
Uml Diagram Tool
supports sequence diagrams, class, ER, usecase etc. works great and has a free version available.
You can also check out Lucid Chart for uml and other types of diagramming.
In my practice i use Sequence Diagram Editor. it is really fast and helpful tool. the one thing i don't like about it is that it is commercial product, not free.
I like VisualParadigm mentioned before in this thread. It's powerful and easy to use I think it gives most power comparing to other tools.
If you need something simple, quick and easy (and free) there is a great tool called UMLet - I highly recommend this. I've tried many of UML diagramming tools and this the simplest one (and it still allows to do great diagrams). This is my choice:)
Obviously if you are serious about UML in the long run you need to use a software UML tool like the ones suggested in the other answers, but I've found that a whiteboard is one of the best tools for UML diagramming, especially during the design phase, or when you are exploring different alternatives. Nothing beats a whiteboard for speed/flexibility in my mind. They are also great for collaboration assuming you are collocated physically.
I can't believe no one has mentioned NetBeans UML Editor, it's great and satisfied all of my Java based UML requirments.
This after I tested JDeveloper UML, ArgoUML and StarUML.
Free Uml Diagramming Tool
I recently conducted a poll 'What UML Tools do you use?' in my blog. NetBeans UML was was the top opensource choice and Enterprise Architect was the top commercial choice.
You can create UML class, sequence, component, use case, and activity diagrams in Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate. You can link these diagrams to Team Foundation work items so you can plan and track development and test work. You can also create sequence, dependency graphs, and layer diagrams from code and use Architecture Explorer to browse and explore your solution.
I've posted more links on my profile for more info.
You might want to take a look at MagicDraw or Visual Paradigm for UML. Both offer community editions that, of course, don't span the full feature range, but may well be sufficient if you want to create diagrams only and not generate code or do full round-trip engineering.
Rational and Together/J are best-of-breed products, but expensive.
In my experience, I've enjoyed Eclipse Omondo and Sparx Enterprise Architect. Omondo integrates nicely with Eclipse for code generation, and has a very intuitive feel. However, it is strongly tied to Java. Sparx is a good tool for the price point, but lacks the full range of UML 2.0 diagrams.
Do NOT bother with Poseidon. It is buggy, bloated, and unusuable for all intents and purposes.
For sequence diagrams you can also try Trace Modeler. It's not free but it has a great interface, very friendly and productive. You can use it on any platform.