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I just can't find a decent (and free) one. What can I use?

karel
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Lucas Pottersky
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11 Answers11

19

Tried Dia?

 sudo apt-get install dia

Dia

wotanii
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Oli
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19

Did you ever try Umbrello? Given it is based on KDE, however is the best tool I have encountered if you do not want to go the java route. Umbrello is in the Ubuntu repository.

If you are ok with java, ArgoUML is a quite good tool, or you can see what plugins are available for eclipse.

ArgoUML

JJD
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txwikinger
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12

Umlet Install umlet is a great, free, open-source UML tool with a simple user interface:

  • you can draw UML diagrams fast,
  • produce sequence and activity diagrams
  • export diagrams to eps, pdf, jpg, svg, and clipboard
  • share diagrams using Eclipse
  • create new, custom UML elements

and UMLet runs stand-alone or as Eclipse plug-in on Windows, OS X and Linux.

(Also, check out its sister tool PLOTlet to create chart grids.)

Umlet

Its among the best and my personal favorite !

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avimehenwal
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8

Dia Install dia can generate code into Java, PHP, C++ and many more, but you should install Dia2code Install dia2code for generating code. I use it for creating UML and then generate the code of the classes.

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metamorph
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5

I use Papyrus, a suite developed by the Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique in France that is today available as a plug-in to Eclipse. It is the most advanced open source modelling tool I am aware of and supports UML2 almost entirely. Broad description:

Papyrus is aiming at providing an integrated and user-consumable environment for editing any kind of EMF model and particularly supporting UML and related modeling languages such as SysML and MARTE. Papyrus provides diagram editors for EMF-based modeling languages amongst them UML 2 and SysML and the glue required for integrating these editors (GMF-based or not) with other MBD and MDSD tools.

Most importantly, Papyrus supports Model-Driven Development (MDD), being a pretty able tool to develop Domain Specific Languages. On this regard, Papyrus seems to be the only open source tool supporting the Model-Driven Architecture (MDA) pattern issued by the OMG. With a code generator such as Acceleo you end up with a full MDD stack - from which you may even create your own DSL plug-ins.

enter image description here

Luís de Sousa
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2

After a longe search in desktop apps I decided to go web, now I'm using Cacoo, which allow not only uml drawing but a lot of different drawing (like network topography, general stuff, etc). It's free and allow to share with friends and concurrently editing.

Schablonen in Cacoo

JJD
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Marcos Roriz Junior
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2

I like yEd. It is not open-source but it is freeware and cross-platform, handling many types of diagrams and also UML.

enter image description here

Martin R.
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Gaphor Install gaphor is decent. It has some limitations and bugs, but it is the least annoying of UML editors out there. However, as Dia, it cannot generate code, I am just listing it in case you ever need a straight UML diagram creation tool.

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levesque
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So far Astah* is the best UML tool I've ever used. In my opinion, the drawing experience is better because it can automatically align or anchor the graphical elements in a smart enough way.

They used to provide a free community version but unfortunately they have stopped that support since 2018/09/26.

However, its UML Editor provides a free version if you are a student.

yaobin
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You can use diagrams.net (https://www.diagrams.net/). It's free, online and it can be used in team.

Jorge Eduardo
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Visual Paradigm is a powerful commercial tool for UML. But you can use the community edition which is free (for not commercial use). The only restriction is that every hour close the program.

enter image description here

om-nom-nom
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Vassilis
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