Over the years, I have tried many times to find a good, easy to use, cross platform tool for some basic software system diagramming. The UML tools I have tried seemed to get in my way more than help. So far, the solution I keep returning to is Visio, which is both Windows-only and expensive. Although its far from ideal, it does provide some basic building block and allows things like grid placement and zooming. I wanted to see if there is a great tool out there that I'm just missing that fits at least some of the criteria mentioned.
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Graphviz FTW!
What could be more hardcore than writing a text file to convert into a diagram etc...
GUI, we don't need no stinkin' GUI!
Simon Peverett
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You could try DIA, though it is a bit basic it will keep out of your way when doing pure diagrams.
Raymond Dubisky
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1I like to use Dia too. It runs pretty well in Linux environment. In windows environment, I am more happy with the online diagram too. I recommend [link] (http://www.draw.io) and [link] (https://www.gliffy.com) as they can export to multiple formats. – g5thomas Jan 26 '16 at 21:12
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Well, I guess you mean for Windows. Otherwise for the Mac, nothing I know can beat OmniGraffle. Not only it is so easy my grandmother could use it, it can actually make really "beautiful" diagrams. It is really not too expensive (version 5 is now $99, but older ones used to be less than $40; still got a cheap one) and it can do it all, network diagrams, flow charts, UML digrams, UI mockups, etc. The app is clever, it thinks for you in a way, e.g. it will detect that you try to align objects on a line or have equal spaces between them and offer you hinted drag'n drop to make sure these criteria are met. As I said, it's really easy to work with OG.
And it can even also existing Xcode project (the standard Mac IDE for programmers) and automatically generate graphs from your source code. A complete UML chart by just pulling your Xcode project onto the icon :-) I guess it would be great if they could port that to Linux or Windows, but I'm afraid it will never happen.
Mecki
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I've used Edge Diagrammer... It does what you want simply and quickly. Supports grid placement and zooming. It's Windows-only, and it's gotten more expensive than I remember, but still cheaper than Visio.
Adam Bellaire
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If you have to use software, Visio is my favorite. (I get it for free through my school's CS program)
But... I find the best tool out there is a 17" x 11" sketchpad, sure it's made for artists but nothing beats a massive piece of paper for figuring out design problems.
epochwolf
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The most productive diagramming, in my experience, is done on the whiteboard.
I capture in Visio, though, it has more tools and shapes than anyone else, and you can extend it to do code generation.
Guy Starbuck
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Sometimes I use yEd. It is a Graph Editor, but it is perfectly able to be used as a diagramming tool.
Sebastian
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Toon Krijthe
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The best free solution that I'm aware of is Dia. It's marketed as a casual Visio replacement.
Antonio Haley
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There's also Kivio, which I've heard good things about but haven't personally used. That one's multi-platform and free.
Adam Bellaire
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I use Violet UML Editor for most of my diagrams. It's not cluttered with code reverse engineering and code generation features and makes creating elegant simple diagrams very easy. Best of all it's free.