flowchart

SmartDraw

April 04, 2016 by Laurie Parker
Categories: Design & VisualizationProductivity & Utility

Availability: 7 day free trial or purchase a license
Comparable: Visio, Dia, Google Drawing

SmartDraw logoSmartDraw is a diagramming tool that can be used to create flowcharts, org charts, mind maps, and floor plans. Users can create graph-based, chart-based, or schematic diagrams.

SmartDraw integrates with Microsoft Office. With just a click, drawings can be sent to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or Outlook. It’s also compatible with Visio, allowing the user to import existing Visio files and continue work in SmartDraw.

SmartDraw Cloud allows users to create and edit diagrams in their web browser, whether they are on Windows or Mac.

There’s a 7 day free trial available for both the browser-based or desktop version.

 

Tags: flowchartvector

Visio

November 20, 2014 by Andy Voelker
Categories: Design & VisualizationProductivity & Utility

visio_2013

Availability: Available at discount
Comparable: Dia

Microsoft Visio (viz-zee-oh) is a diagramming and vector graphics application and is part of the Microsoft Office family.  Visio can be useful for creating organization structures, network structures, room layouts, relational diagrams, process diagrams, flow charts, and more.  Visio can also use UML (Universal Markup Language) to interface with database schemas.  Visio starts with a set of templates that allow a user to easily develop a diagram using a preconfigured set of stencils, icons, and markup for a specific purpose.  Additional templates and stencils can be downloaded via the Office Download Center.  Users can also create from a blank template and use any stencils and objects from any library available.

Visio is not part of the standard Office installation and must be licensed and installed separately. It is only available on the Windows Platform.

Tags: flowchartumlvector

Dia

October 30, 2014 by Andy Voelker
Categories: Productivity & Utility

dialogoAvailability: Free download
Comparable: Visio

Dia is free and open source general-purpose diagramming software, roughly inspired by Microsoft Visio. Dia uses a controlled single document interface (SDI) similar to GIMP and Inkscape.

Dia has a modular design with several shape packages available for different needs: flowchart, network diagrams, circuit diagrams, and more. It does not restrict symbols and connectors from various categories from being placed together.

Dia has special objects to help draw entity-relationship models (obsoleted tedia2sql or newer parsediasql can be used to create the SQL DDL), Unified Modeling Language (UML) diagrams, flowcharts, network diagrams, and simple electrical circuits. It is also possible to add support for new shapes by writing simple XML files, using a subset of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) to draw the shape.

Dia loads and saves diagrams in a custom XML format which is, by default, gzipped to save space. It can print large diagrams spanning multiple pages and can also be scripted using the Python programming language.

Dia is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux and is available to download at no cost here.

Tags: flowchartuml