OT: UML modelling tools

[Mark Woods]

I know this is off-topic, but could anyone recommend a simple modelling
tool that'll run on windows (ideally on nix too)?

I used to use umbrello and, although it was a little clunky, it did the
job. I back in windows land in the office now, so I'm just looking for
something that's free and simple and isn't Dia (unless it has improved
massively over the past year or two).

Thanks

Mark

[Jonathan Clarke]

http://www.koffice.org/kivio/

Not sure if it works for windows though....

[Mark Woods]

> http://www.koffice.org/kivio/
>
> Not sure if it works for windows though....

Doesn't seem to. I've just install staruml, and it looks great, but it
only runs on WIndows. I'll try running it under wine later and see how
it behaves. It would be nice to find something cross-platform though.

Mark

[matt]

I always found mindmeister to be handy enough for rough UML sketching;

http://www.mindmeister.com/

Its not super formal or anything but can handy for getting a napkin
sketch into something more formal
(has an offline mode, and sync feature too)

Regards,

Matt

[Mark Woods]

> I've just install staruml, and it looks great, but it
> only runs on WIndows. I'll try running it under wine later and see how
> it behaves. It would be nice to find something cross-platform though.

For anyone interested - staruml doesn't behave under wine. A
cross-platform (java based) app called Jude was recommended off-list.
I'm giving that a go at the moment. It's not bad, not as good as
staruml, reminds me of using umbrello actually, clunky, but gets the job
done.

Thanks Matt for the tip re mindmaps, I often use these for myself when
sketching things out and mindmeister seems handy, but I need to be able
to evolve the model into something a little more formal that I can share
with colleagues.

Mark

[FreeAgent]

Hi Mark,

A friend recommended MagicDraw. He did a presentation at work about it
too.

It's a commercial product, but you can download a trial version--and
there appears to be a "community edition".

Good luck!

Kevin.

[Mark Woods]

> It's a commercial product, but you can download a trial version--and
> there appears to be a "community edition".

Just had a tinker with it and it seems like it might be overkill for our
needs. It's also quite expensive at $150 for a personal license (the
community edition is for developing open source software only). We
usually just sketch up uml diagrams on a whiteboard tbh, the reason I'm
suddenly looking for a tool again is we've moved office, but haven't
moved the whiteboard yet.

BTW, I gave up on Jude because it's too java centred and there is very
little documentation. I'm liking StarUML so far, and it exports diagrams
in xmi format so that should be enough to allow me share with colleagues.

Thanks for all the suggestions

Mark