I'm looking for a Java UI designer allowing me to drag and drop controls directly to the design surface in a floating mode (without the hassle of north, south etc that comes with SWT). Is there any such tool?
Also, I'm only interested in tools offering a trial version.
EDIT: I'm only interested in solutions allowing me to drag/drop items regardless of panels margin, LayoutManager stuff etc. The position should preferably be just relative to the window margin.
Thanks in advance
Eclipse has a free visual editor called VEP. See http://www.eclipse.org/vep/
Instantiations has a very nice set of tools with a trial version:
Note that for any visual designer, you should know how layout managers work to use them properly (and make sure your UI expands/contracts/adapts to font/locale properly). If you just use absolute placement, things can get cropped, for example.
See http://developer.java.sun.com/developer/onlineTraining/GUI/AWTLayoutMgr/ for my article on layout management to get a feel for how to use things like North, South. It only covers the original five Java layout managers, but describes why you need them and how you can nest them.
You can use NetBeans to design your GUI. Instead of messing with Layout Managers, just use the "Absolute" layout. It will put the UI Components exactly where you drop them, pixel for pixel.
I recommend JFormDesigner, which has support for "Free Design". From http://www.jformdesigner.com/doc/help/layouts/grouplayout.html:
The goal of the group layout manager is to make it easy to create professional cross platform layouts. It is designed for GUI builders, such as JFormDesigner, to use the "Free Design" paradigm. You can lay out your forms by simply placing components where you want them. Visual guidelines suggest optimal spacing, alignment and resizing of components.
It has a trial version and is very easy to use.
Netbeans has a drag and drop module called Matisse: http://www.netbeans.org/kb/articles/matisse.html