Please suggest me a tool to create a Domain Model diagram

Question

Hi,

Could someone please suggest me a tool to create a Domain Model diagram? Some details:

1. I am running Windows at the moment
2. A tool is free
3. It's not a pencil and a sheet of paper
4. It should be easy to use, i.e. I don't want to spend more than 5 minutes for a relatively simple diagram
5. I hate MS Visio. IMHO, It's ill-designed.

Thanks.

Answer 1

JUDE Community Edition for UML runs on Windows, is free, is not pencil and paper, easy to use (IMO), and not Visio. It meets all your criteria - try it.

Answer 2

It's not a pencil and a sheet of paper

A wacom tablet and paint.net?

"Essentially, all models are wrong, but some are useful" George_E._P._Box

It really depends what use you want for the model. If it's use to to let you understand the domain, or communicate to the guy next to you, a pen and paper are probably the best tool.

If you want to put it in a presentation, then Visio is good enough. ( For example, some of the OMG UML specs use Visio. )

If you want to perform more complicated checking and transformation ( unusual for a Domain Model ) or link it to a later implementation model, then a fully fledged model base UML tool.

IMHO, It's ill-designed.

Unfortunately, I haven't used a UML tool that was an easy to use and intuitive as I'd like ( the closest being OmniGraffle which had the ease of use for creating diagrams, but no UML model behind it ).

Answer 3

If you're just looking for a drawing tool, check out: DIA, Violet or UMLet (I particularly like this one).

For a modeling tool (I don't think this is what you're looking for), I'd suggest: ArgoUML or EclipseUML.