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Umbrello is a pretty simple UML editor though it does support a range of different views and diagrams. It makes it as easy as possible to draw a simple diagram, then lets you alter and add to it as your design is refined. Everything seems to work fine under Linux with the exception of exporting to an image.

The instructions you need to follow to install Umbrello – and a range of other KDE 4 applications such as my favourite text editor Kate – under Windows can be found on this wiki page.

If you give it a try let me know whether the install works for you. I hate having to learn to use a different piece of software for each platform I work on.

That said, the area where I’m really struggling is finding a decent UML editor. Under Linux the best solution I’ve found is Umbrello: it’s easy to use, and has a lot of great functionality. However, it isn’t altogether stable – I’ve found it can’t cope with complex diagrams and crashes every hour or so – and since QT4 for Windows isn’t quite up to scratch, it isn’t much use when I need to to Windows/Direct X development work.

Recently I’ve been using ArgoUML. As a Java application it will run on practically any platform, so I can share diagrams between my Windows and Linux installs. It has a good range of features such as critiquing your designs and a clear and simple graphical user interface, however it also has its stability issues. Occasionally it uses up a huge amount of memory before grinding to a complete halt, requiring the application to be restarted in order to continue. Changes to the application’s settings seem to only take effect as and when they feel like it. Also, layouts seem to change when a diagram is saved, losing a lot of formatting information.

Overall, ArgoUML is usable. The user interface is great, and the feature set is definitely heading in the right direction. At the same time though, for applications relating to my coursework I’d take stability over an increased features set in a heartbeat.

Does anyone have any recommendations for an open source (or, if necessary, freeware) UML Editor?
How do you design your projects and software?

I’ve messed with UML (Unified Modeling Language) briefly in the past, but this week was the first time I’ve tried to make diagrams for a project I actually intend to work through. This time, I’m also taking the sensible route of using Umbrello, rather than making some pretty dodgy looking sketches on paper.

I decided to take a rough plan for the structure of one of my pieces of coursework that I had on paper and create a class diagram from it. After a few minutes of playing around in Umbrello my first thoughts were: This is really fun! It’s much easier to correct mistakes and make changes than working on paper, meaning I could focus on my plan.

It was a while before I noticed how much more making the diagram was forcing me to think about how I was going to organise everything, and build a much better picture in my mind of what was going on. Even if the diagram itself doesn’t prove useful later on, I’m sure the way it made me consider the structure of my program will make a difference.

So whilst I can’t say for sure whether this will help my project, it’s going well so far and I’d recommend other people who’ve avoided it so far aslo try it out. I’ll keep you updated on this as my coursework progresses, of course.

Over to you…

So far I’ve looked at a few tutorials online, but none of them have proven particularly helpful. Is there anything you would recommend?
Do you use UML and have you found it useful? Do you have any advice?
Can anyone recommend any software for Windows or Mac users?