C# Class/Object visualisation software

Question

In Visual Studio 2005 and prior you could export your code to Visio and view the relationships between the objects and what methods, properties and fields it had. This was great as it allowed you to tweak the appearance to improve the look.

In VS 2008 that option is gone, replaced (supposedly) with the class diagram system. It is functional but not pretty.

What I am looking for is some software that allows me to visualise in a prettier way or at least provide me with enough options to filter, arrange and so on so that I could touch it up in something else.

Answer 1

Have you tried the PowerToys?

Answer 2

Do you require the software to be free? If not, you might consider a UML tool like Sparx Enterprise Architect. It can import your code, and has two add-ons that go further in terms of Visual Studio integration.

Answer 3

There is a decent, free version of a UML diagramming tool called Argos here http://argouml.tigris.org/features.html. Out of the box it can both forward and reverse engineer Java, I'm fairly certain there are add-ins for Visual Studio that help support forward and reverse engineering of C# code. I would look into that.

Answer 4

Not quite what you're asking for but it's worth checking out some of the add-ins for .Net Reflector

E.g.

• Graph
• Dependency Structure Matrix PlugIn for .NET Reflector
• 100% Reflective Class Diagram Creation Tool

Answer 5

Not your answer, but related...

Codeplex's VisioAutoExt library: http://www.codeplex.com/visioautoext

Visio ActiveX component: http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/UploadFile/mgold/VisioInDotNet12032006222024PM/VisioInDotNet.aspx

Answer 6

When i search for code in codeplex i found this http://vsdm.codeplex.com/ maybe help you.

Answer 7

With VS2005 & VS2008 you have the option of designing your own modelling language (DSL) here you can choose how your model is rendered, it would be a big investment if its just to make the diagrams look a little better, but it does provide you with option to customise how the code is generated from your model.

Answer 8

You may have tried PowerDesigner, it runs under Eclipse through a plugin and it also supports Visual Studio. The only downside is that it only works on Windows.

Another application for modeling is System Architect from IBM (Popkin). It has been used by some major corporations and is still maintained.

Answer 9

Check this good article about prototyping

http://www.sitepoint.com/article/tools-prototyping-wireframing/

Answer 10

Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate supports UML class, sequence, component, use case, and activity diagrams. It also supports creating sequence, dependency graphs, and layer diagrams from code. Other tools include Architecture Explorer, which lets you browse and explore your solution.

For more info, see the following links:

To download the RC release, visit: Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate RC

To see the RC documentation, see Modeling the Application.

To discuss these tools, visit the Visual Studio 2010 Architectural Discovery & Modeling Tools forum.

Answer 11

NDepend is certainly the tool you are looking for. NDepend comes with a dependency graph coupled with a dependency matrix. You can try NDepend straight on your code thanks to a Free Trial Edition.

And because a picture is worth a thousands words, see screenshoots extracted from this blog post: Interactive Code Dependencies Graph