views:

192

answers:

4

I'm currently looking for diagramming software that allows me to quickly map stuff and jot down concepts such as a filesystem directories represented by nested boxes containing icons (representing files.)

Off course the simplest solution of all would be to just use paper and pencil, but unfortunately i have such poor motor skills that after minutes i cannot even distinguish the shapes I've drawn myself, never mind have these notes be of any use to someone else in order to have him/her work with them.

So far I've tried a ton of software packages but none of it seem to be simple/flexible/powerful enough to help fulfill the modeling /sketching tasks I'm trying to achieve

Visio, smartdraw Edraw conceptdraw Vue yEd Dia Kivio paint.net photoshop Illustrator GIMP

in addition I've played around with modeling tools including staruml,argouml and Visual Paradigm as well as Eclipse modeling, but most of them were too complicated, too constricting and in some ways completely alien. On a side note, I absolutely HATE eclipse, I'm used to writing shellscripts with nano on a shell, The sheer amount of features (That i will never ever have any use for) make it hard for me to find that which I'm really looking for. YAGNI G*DD*MM*T!

Allthough UML modeling is at times important, such models are more for the next follow up phase and would be overkill (as well as a creativity killing burden) when I'm trying to come up with something from scratch.

Right now I'm looking for something new, I would be more than happy if someone could perhaps suggest something,

Most importantly i would like to find a program where the software allows me to do add new shapes and with the parent shape automatically growing so that that added shapes all fit inside of it rather than that i have to manually resize the parent shape

A: 

For "UML as a Sketch" I use the Hruby UML Stencil for Visio. These do not enforce eny semantics, so you can be as sketchy as you need to quickly record ideas and communicate.

See http://www.softwarestencils.com/uml/index.html

Richard
A: 

I use Dia. It is cross platform. Very simple tool.

However, My favorite has always been to sketch it on paper and scan (fotopragh it on my mobile) and keep it for records. Nothing beats pen and paper yet !

Sathya
A: 

I tried yEd recently, because I happened to see it mentioned in another thread here. I'm quite impressed with it. Its pretty easy to use. I think the feature I liked the most is that I can draw my diagram regardless of the spacing and orientation. Then 1 button and poof, the whole things rearranges into the ordering I want.

As a linux diagramming tool, im pretty impressed with it.

KFro
A: 

this one is good for remote team members. Nothing to install http://www.dabbleboard.com/

eiu165