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Stack OverflowBest UML Application for MAC OSX / Cross Platform
[+228] [22] BigMadKev
[2008-08-20 20:56:54]
[ osx cross-platform uml ]
[ http://stackoverflow.com/questions/18814/best-uml-application-for-mac-osx-cross-platform ] [DELETED]

What is the best mac based or even better cross platform UML Application available both costed and opensource / freeware?

Also check out: apple stackexchange - FLY
(6) New useful answer: GenMyModel is a new browser-hosted UML modeler, cross-platform and presently free. It works on Chrome, Firefox, IE and Safari and provides UML-compliant modeling with code generation. - Georges
(28) 152 people found this constructive - AMomchilov
(2) use staruml.io its and awsome choice for uml diagrrams and documentation. - Muhammad Taqi Hassan Bukhari
(2) Why this question is closed ???? I confirm : StarUML 2 is a very good soft : staruml.io Available on mac and windows. Evaluated version is time Unlimited ! Easy to use, Free, You will find all stuff you need to create simple UML graph. - Tobliug
At a guess, question is closed because 1 - stacktrace policy forbids threads about tools and products 2 - the question asks for "The Best" UML tool, which is a pointless question to ask. - PaulMurrayCbr
[+77] [2008-08-20 21:16:10] Jason Baker

OmniGraffle [1]: quite possibly the best diagramming software ever.

[1] http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/OmniGraffle/

(7) The only annoying thing about OmniGraffle is that (as of yet) it doesn't read or write XMI <en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML_Metadata_Interchange>;, the standard UML format. - gabrielk
(96) And it costs $100 - yegor256
(58) And it has nothing to do with UML. OmniGraffle is just a drawing software, like Paintbrush, but with more powerful interface. - yegor256
(7) @yegor256, it's NOT painting software, like Painbrush, but rather like Visio or somesuch (diagramming software). It's got UML templates built-in. That said, it's true that a dedicated tool (how I miss Together!) is a different beast altogether. - Yar
I've been using omnigraffle for a day now and my biggest problem is that exery pieces changes place (except if I lock some) when I connect an arrow from one piece to another. That's really annoying.. Why the hell is that? - Gigi2m02
(1) Gigi2m02 that's because you're using automatic layout, turn it off in Inspectors > Canvas > Diagram Layout > "Automatic layout" checkbox. - anddam
@yegor256 $130 in Australia. Wow. - Simon Hartcher
I think it provides more flexibility, but what I want is standard and quick modeling which seems undoable in Giraffle to me. Moreover the Omni thing is just too much to learn. - jchnxu
a) Not a UML tool b) not open source/free. I would down vote this answer if I could. - Honza
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[+26] [2010-11-08 23:40:54] usami-k

Astah [1] is a cross-platform UML editor. I'm using 'astah* community' on Mac OS X 10.6.

[1] http://astah.change-vision.com/en/

(3) It seems that, unlike many other community editions, astah community can be used for commercial purposes. - madej
astah* dmg file is available since version 6.3. -> astah.change-vision.com/en/feature/astah-on-mac.html - usami-k
(1) cisco is using this and they use gliffy too, apple using gliffy too.. anyway these two software are the best thta i've seen in a whole web - holms
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[+24] [2008-08-23 23:20:27] Gary Richardson

If you're looking for a cross platform/web based solution, check out Gliffy [1]. It also integrates into several wiki's. Wiki's with pictures always look nicer!

[1] http://www.gliffy.com/

(5) too sad about 5 diagrams limit - holms
(1) Awesome! Jira integration and everything! - Nailer
(4) A word of caution: Remember to create an account BEFORE spending two hours on a diagram. I had flash crash on me and lost all my work. With an account you autosave all the time. - Nailer
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[+17] [2008-09-05 23:56:41] DGentry

OmniGraffle Pro [1] includes a reasonable set of UML stencils.

Even better: If you drag a framework to the OmniGraffle Pro application it will generate a diagram for every class in the framework, with links for subclasses. This can be quite a time saver.

[1] http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnigraffle/pro/

(1) How does that work? I can't find any docs on it. - Pedr
(5) In MacOS 10.5 it no longer works. In 10.4 you could drag any Objective-C framework to OmniGraffle Pro, and it would generate a diagram. - DGentry
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[+12] [2011-02-11 15:57:05] yegor256

Check out this more or less complete list of UML-drawing tools [1]

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Unified_Modeling_Language_tools

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[+11] [2008-08-20 21:52:38] samiq

same as @danb I use Visual Paradigm [1] (not free, but they do have a Community Edition [2]), got to say it is not the most user friendly tool but does its job and covers a lot details in modeling... in windows I'd say nothing beats Enterprise Architect... but Visio comes handy for really fast diagramming for documentation purposes and is cheaper.

Cheers!

G

[1] http://www.visual-paradigm.com/
[2] http://www.visual-paradigm.com/product/vpuml/communityedition.jsp

(1) when I see this diagrams I can't understand them just because everything is in 2 colours... black and blue.. and lines/arrows goes almost in random way when they connects, it's most ugliest diagraming i've ever seen.. i don't about you guys, but I wouldn't risk to show this kind of diagram to the client.. it's like windows 3.1 style you know.. visio does the job, I want OSX tool which can make something similar to visio - holms
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[+10] [2008-08-20 21:00:39] bmatthews68 [ACCEPTED]

I haven't touched a Mac in about 15 years but I think ArgoUML [1] should do the trick for you. I use it on Windows platforms but Mac is supported too.

[1] http://argouml.tigris.org/

(76) ArgoUML is nearly unusable on the Mac. I've yet to have a saved project file that doesn't get corrupted within a day or two of me having saved it -- leading to me having to re-create entire projects from scratch a half-dozen times. I won't even install ArgoUML on the Mac anymore. - delfuego
(4) Yes I have had problems getting ArgoUML to work relibably on my Mac for years, I have given up on it ever becoming stable. - corydoras
(17) I can't understand how you people can be happy about argouml ugly b/w or 4colors tables.. it's so ugly that I even wanna die when I see diagram like that.. - holms
(5) WOW! Super ugly! - SlavikMe
(2) Never use ArgoUML. It has all the features but not stable at all. I just lost my week's work and was supposed to make a delivery today. - kishu27
(1) ArgoUML caused me problems too. I do not recommend it. - Mr. Pichler
(4) Nowadays on Yosemite it doesn't work due to it needs Java 6. - Hola Soy Edu Feliz Navidad
With a few exceptions, cross-platform apps on Macs are usually performs poorly. - Devy
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[+9] [2010-05-21 09:52:26] Robert

There are two questions that you should think on, before choosing the right tool:

  1. Do you only like to sketch/draw/paint/depict UML Diagrams? --> so have a look on OmniGraffle and it's competitors or any other sketching tool with some kind of UML Stencils.

  2. Do you like to model UML Models and visualize them as Diagrams? --> you should look for a real UML Tool.

Next you should decide, if you can ignore, that most of the real UML Tools are originally written for Windows and that's why there are many UI-Compromises in the Mac OS X ports of these tools. This is also true for any Java "Cross-Plattform" UML Tools (MagicDraw, Argo/Poseidon, aso.).

AFAIK there is no "pure" Mac OS X UML Tool that supports MODELING (instead of sketching) UML Models with a complete Cocoa look and feel. (Especially FEEL!)


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[+9] [2011-07-15 17:06:00] Jam

UMLLet [1] works nicely and it's free

[1] http://www.umlet.com/

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[+8] [2011-07-27 16:02:09] DuneCat

I heard of this from a SuperUser answer [1], but nonetheless: yEd seems hella cool. I has some really nice algorithms for doing the layout after you've done the connections. The amount of shapes available for UML by default is a bit underwhelming, but I'm sure more can be added.

http://www.yworks.com/

Check it out.

[1] http://superuser.com/questions/174218/free-diagram-tool-for-mac-os-x

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[+5] [2008-08-20 21:32:28] danb

I've used visual paradigm [1]... it's not free, but it's pretty powerful and cross-platform... might be worth a demo to you.

[1] http://www.visual-paradigm.com/

(2) Yes VP is great. I think it's a java app. It's a CASE tool that can generate all the database commands for creating the data model. - Thanks
It looks like an eclipse platform app. There is a Community Edition that you can use for free too, although if you export as an image it includes a watermark. - brass-kazoo
(1) It is a really complex tool and hard to use. I'd not recommend it for small to medium sized projects. It has every feature imaginable, but that also makes it bloated and convoluted. - orkoden
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[+5] [2010-10-22 04:44:05] wwarlock

TopCoder UML Tool [1] looks like pretty tool for sketching. I've just found it, but didn't test it in a deep yet.

[1] http://www.topcoder.com/wiki/display/tc/TopCoder+UML+Tool

(3) ah java again!! - holms
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[+4] [2010-02-19 02:51:19] Romhein

I know the question is more than one year old, but BOUML [1] is definitely a tool you want to look at; it supports UML2, works on pretty much every existing platform [2] and is actively developed [3]

[1] http://bouml.free.fr/index.html
[2] http://bouml.free.fr/download.html
[3] http://bouml.free.fr/historic.html

(4) This is no longer available. - Tommy Herbert
(1) The lead developer has stopped working on it, but the archives are still accessible: wuala.com/BOUML/4.22.2 (for information this soft is under GNU GPL V2). - Romhein
not free anymore - pleerock
(1) Windows ONLY so this is non-responsive to the OP - JESii
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[+4] [2011-01-06 09:44:22] Max

My opinion is that MagicDraw [1] is the best UML tool available that runs natively (well, Java) on OSX. I have used it professionally and its feature set is very complete. It is, however, expensive (not compared to Rational, of course).

Having used, practically, all of the available commercial UML tools, I actually prefer Enterprise Architect [2], but it only runs under Windows or Linux. Many years ago, I did manage to get the Linux version running under OSX, but it was painful and I would not recommend it. Shame, because EA is excellent value for money.

[1] http://www.magicdraw.com/
[2] http://www.sparxsystems.eu/

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[+3] [2010-08-23 13:23:17] Stephen Ball

http://umlcanvas.org/ is a pretty nice canvas-based web application for creating UML diagrams. But you need to be comfortable with or willing to learn ADL since it doesn't support drawing on the diagram directly.

e.g. you'll input something like:

diagram SimpleTest +dynamic  {
  [@382,177]
  interface MyTestInterface {
    operation testOperation :Boolean +public  {
    argument test :String;
  }
}

And it will generate the diagram. The +dynamic means you'll have rudimentary mouse manipulation of the generated diagram.


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[+3] [2011-09-05 05:01:19] Ali

I recommend Violet UML Editor [1].

[1] http://alexdp.free.fr/violetumleditor/page.php

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[+2] [2010-12-17 18:04:52] Raspu

Cacoo [1] or Creately [2] Also are quite nice online UML editors. I've used cacoo a lot, its really simple. Cacoo its free until 25 sheets (or diagrams) and Creatley its free until 5 public diagrams.

[1] https://cacoo.com/
[2] https://creately.com/

both are great, too sad that creately gives just 5 diagrams limit. but cacoo giving 25!!!!!! - holms
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[0] [2008-09-06 00:05:37] Thomas Owens

I used to use Visual Paradigm Community, but switched to StarUML. I'm not sure if it's on Mac, though.


(2) StarUML is not on Mac, and it doesn't look like there's much activity in terms of development. However, one of their long-term goals is to be cross-platform, but without development, it doesn't look like that's going to happen soon. - Thomas Owens
(1) StarUML is available here staruml.io - Shafraz Buhary
Start UML 2 is available on mac and windows. Evaluated version is time Unlimited ! - Tobliug
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[0] [2010-03-14 00:10:56] GSP

I've been using Poseidon from Gentleware for years on Linux and Mac. The community edition uses a subscription model that's pretty inexpensive. The UI on Mac isn't necessarily OS-X style, but it's worked well for me for Java projects. One unfortunate, but probably temporary, issue is that the 8.0 Beta is not currently file compatible with the earlier version.


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[0] [2010-08-03 15:25:33] Phil

Borland Together Architect is fully supported on OS X and the files are transportable to the Windows and Linux versions of the product too. Unfortunately being 'the best of the best' it does not come cheap - £3000 a copy in the UK.

I've used Rational, Enterprise Archtitect and Borland extensively and BTA is my tool of choice.


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[0] [2010-12-24 13:03:54] redben

Eclipse UML2 Tools anyone ? http://www.vogella.de/articles/UML/article.html Plus you can generate code from your models. I use eclipse for quite everything (except cocoa apps) (php, flex, java...) the "I" in "Eclipse IDE" is just unbeatable ! I love you eclipse.


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[0] [2011-02-14 04:59:53] holms

MacA&D [1] <-- have look at this one.. i think it's osx only and without some crappy java on board! Too bad it's really old software =(

[1] http://www.excelsoftware.com/macosxproducts.html

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