views:

1122

answers:

6

Is there a FREE (or relatively cheaper) Java GUI designer/builder?

+16  A: 

I highly recommend NetBeans's Matisse GUI editor.

Chris Jester-Young
I recommend this one as well... its very easy to use, and powerful.
jsight
I personally have used this one pretty from its early days, I have yet to find a GUI design it cannot at least "rough out"
Wintermute
+2  A: 

Netbeans has one, as does Eclipse.

Joachim Sauer
If I remember right, if you don't want to fork out any money, Eclipse has no capabilities for using GroupLayout; NetBeans has support for GroupLayout out of the box.
Chris Jester-Young
NetBeans is a lot easier to use than Eclipse for GUI designing in my opinion. Less hassle with configuration.
Duncan
A: 

It isn't free (or particularly cheap), but the one in IntelliJ is pretty nice.

jsight
A: 

try NetBeans or Eclipse Visual Editor Plugin

groovingandi
+3  A: 

Unfortunately, it looks like the Eclipse Visual Editor has not been maintained or developed a lot the past three years. On the Visual Editor homepage you'll see that the last release is from June 30, 2006 - more than three years ago.

The best free GUI builder for Java at the moment is probably Matisse which is included in NetBeans, as others have already mentioned.

If you're an Eclipse user, then there's also Matisse4MyEclipse, but it is not free - it's an add-on to the popular MyEclipse. Another non-free option for Eclipse is WindowBuilder Pro, which is not only for Swing, but also for SWT and even GWT GUIs.

Jesper
A: 

Try netbeans, I'm sure you're gonna like the latest release (version 6.7)

Raffo