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Ask HN: A modern-looking UML diagram tool?

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Re: Ask HN: A modern-looking UML diagram tool?

#52

Post by skrebbel »

yboris wrote: post #42

For all sorts of diagrams, this software is awesome: yEd 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)

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.

Re: Ask HN: A modern-looking UML diagram tool?

#53

Post by pc86 »

gpantazes wrote: post #19

I use PlantUML[1] for my UML diagrams. - 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…

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).

Re: Ask HN: A modern-looking UML diagram tool?

#55

Post by Rabidgremlin »

Depending on what you be are diagramming you might want to use the C4 Model ( https://c4model.com/) which often results in easier to understand diagrams. There is a PlantUML add on for it too: https://github.com/RicardoNiepel/C4-PlantUML

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).

Re: Ask HN: A modern-looking UML diagram tool?

#56

Post by 0-_-0 »

pc86 wrote: post #53
gpantazes wrote: post #19

I use PlantUML[1] for my UML diagrams. - 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…

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).

Haha I'm on mobile, so you'd need to do 4 words per line

Re: Ask HN: A modern-looking UML diagram tool?

#57

Post by awinder »

pc86 wrote: post #53
gpantazes wrote: post #19

I use PlantUML[1] for my UML diagrams. - 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…

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).

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.

Re: Ask HN: A modern-looking UML diagram tool?

#58

Post by roland35 »

yboris wrote: post #42

For all sorts of diagrams, this software is awesome: yEd 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)

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!)

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