UML Drawing Tool

[Benjamin Sowah]

Dear Ranchers,
Can any one propose me a free UML Drawing tool the supports UML 2.0? I am using StarUML to draw my sequence diagram but I dont see how I can show gates in my diagrams. I will appreciate your help. I would like to submit my assignment as soon as posible
Benjamin

[Lars Behnke]

You can give Visual Paradigm for UMLor Poseidon UML a try. Both support UML 2.0 and have a free "community" edition (Number of diagrams limited).
Visual Paradigm supports gates.

Lars

[Benjamin Sowah]

Thank you very much Mr. Lars for the information.
The community edition of Poseidon allows till 8 diagrams. Does it mean that I can use it for my SCEA where by I have 1 Class diagram, 1 Component Diagram and 6 Sequence diagrams, irrespective of how many uml elements are in a diagram?

[Wei-ju Wu]

Hi Benjamin,

I have used PoseidonUML, both the 4.x and 5.0 versions. I think Gentleware changed the licensing model in 5.0 so you can not save the projects unless you purchase a rent subscription which is 6 USD a month, or 16 per quarter.

It does not support gates in the version that I have, but otherwise its feature set seems sufficient for the assignment. However, on my configuration (1.5 GHz Centrino, 1 GB RAM, Windows XP, Java 1.6) it is pretty slow, especially on the sequence diagrams. This is not a specific problem of Java, since MagicDraw and NetBeans UML do not suffer from this problem.

I did not experience any restriction with respect to number of classes other than the significant slowdown, so if you have a fast machine, it might work for you. You have to try out for yourself if it suits your needs.

[Lars Behnke]

I used Visual Paradigm f. UML for the assignment, so I cannot say much about the limitations of Poseidon UML. Visual Paradigm prints annoying watermarks into the exported diagrams if you exceed the maximum number of diagrams. The exported images become virtually useless. So I spent $59 on the personal edition which is not crippled by that restriction (but still puts a discreet "not for commercial use" into the diagram header).

Lars

[Sri Ram]

Can I use Rational XDE ? please advise.


Sri Ram

[Benjamin Sowah]

I have made many changes in my sequence diagram to keep on using StarUML.
It is very fast and easy to use (at least for me) I tried Poseidon but was not so impressed. Has any one got a better proposal? I will have a very elegant sequence diagram if I use the gate as found in UML 2.0

[karthikeyan Chockalingam]

I used StarUML, copied the diagram as BitMap and then used MS Paint to convert it to GIF format. Even though the sequence diagrams were too long, I managed to get 12/12.

[Benjamin Sowah]

Thanks karthi for the inspiration. I began to fear as I saw the length of the sequence diagrams. I think your tip has come at the right time

[saurabh suman]

I think you can use SunOne studio also. Give it a try I used sunOne studio for my assignment.

[Benjamin Sowah]

How suitable is using SunOne studio for drawing sequence diagrams?

[karthikeyan Chockalingam]

I tried using SunOne studio. Its a great tool. But some how i felt StarUML was better.

[Benjamin Sowah]

I tried using SunOne studio. Its a great tool. But some how i felt StarUML was better.

This is what I think also but I am having problem generating the sequence diagram. Can any one give better idea than saving it as a bit map and then ...?

[karthikeyan Chockalingam]

You may have to spend 10 minutes in excess (only for the final time just before you jar the files) in converting it to GIF. Work with BitMap till then.

[Jeff Belisle]

I used http://bouml.free.fr/ For Seq/Class diagram (UML 2.0)

For Component diag, I used Enterprise Architect(EA) 30 day trial version.
The catch is that when you copy diagram from EA it has a watermark, So I used snagIt to capture the screen from EA :-)

Yes if you use EA, you need to finish your assignment in 30 days.