Does Excellent free modeling software exist?

Question

My friends are in a class that is requiring class diagram modeling. We have access (legit) to Enterprise Arch but we all really hate it.

And Visio isn't meant for class modeling (at least in our opinion).

Is there a good free solution for class diagram modeling?

Thanks!

Answer 1

http://www.blender.org/

Answer 2

I think that Dia is pretty good for diagramming, but I prefer tools specifically designed for UML such as StarUML or the NetBeans UML editor (although if you aren't using the rest of the NetBeans IDE, that's probably overkill).

EDIT: Apparently, the NetBeans UML Editor is no longer available in version 6.8 of the IDE.b

Answer 3

You can also try NClass. Works on Windows and Linux via Mono.

Answer 4

If as part of the course you also need to do some programming and plan to use the Eclipse IDE, one good option would be to use one of the UML tools for eclipse : http://wiki.eclipse.org/MDT-UML2-Tool-Compatibility

You can also check some links to open-source UML tools here: http://modeling-languages.com/content/uml-tools#open

However, right now my favourite tool is MagicDraw. If your class is part of a university degree, your instructor can contact MagicDraw and asked for temporary licenses for the course

Answer 5

Try ARIS Express (http://www.ariscommunity.com/aris-express). It supports process models, data models, organisational charts, just to name a few. And it is free-of-charge having PDF export and MS Office integration (just copy your Express model and paste it into powerpoint).

Answer 6

You should check Star UML. It's open source and quite capable.

Quote from their web:

StarUML is an open source project to develop fast, flexible, extensible, featureful, and freely-available UML/MDA platform running on Win32 platform. The goal of the StarUML project is to build a software modeling tool and also platform that is a compelling replacement of commercial UML tools such as Rational Rose, Together and so on.