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Given a really big .NET codebase. Some parts in sources and some parts in binaries. It's all .NET code. I'd like to have a tool for discovering dependencies in that code base. By assemblies and by types. Having visualisation of dependencies in graphic form would be very nice.
I'd like to have: instantiation graph, refenrece graph, call graph, type dependencies graph.

For an instance take a class and get all kind of dependencies from his point of view on a diagram with ability to filter by assembly/namaspace/etc.

I understand that reflector can do. And VS2010 Ultimate can do this. But they all have some drawbacks:

  • Reflector is good tool, but its dependencies visualization facilities are very limited
  • VS2010 is too sloooow. It looks like a toy not a mature tool (I meaning its diagramming facilities).

p.s. has already asked somewhere? ok, point me to that place. tnx.

Shrike
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    http://stackoverflow.com/questions/197447/, http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2091867, http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3594807/ more or less deal with the same question, although your variant wins on detail and outlining of specific requirements – pth - Structure101 Feb 07 '11 at 22:03

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Did you try NDepend ?

gor
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    Yeah, I had a look at it some time ago. It seems to me that it's more for understanding quality of code, not architecture. I may be wrong of cause.. – Shrike Feb 07 '11 at 15:13
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    I am the NDepend Lead Dev, Shrike, NDepend is for code quality indeed but comes with several unique features in the .NET world to deal with deendencies in code, like Dependency Structure Matrix and Graph, have a look here http://www.ndepend.com/Doc_VS_Arch.aspx and here http://www.ndepend.com/Doc_Matrix.aspx – Patrick from NDepend team Feb 10 '11 at 18:31
  • Patrick/Shrike, just a quick clarification/confirmation - Structure101 and Lattix also provide DSMs and graphs for .Net, with both products emphasizing dependency/architecture management over metrics/overall code quality. – pth - Structure101 Jun 07 '11 at 07:45
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As @gor suggested you can try NDepend to browse .NET code dependencies. The tool proposes:

In this related question SO answer you can find all details.

Disclaimer: I work for NDepend

Patrick from NDepend team
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Also take a look at Lattix. It can also help you with detecting dependencies.

Patrick
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Install my Dependency Structure Matrix plugin for Reflector. It's free !

You can analyse type dependencies and assembly dependencies to get an idea of the architecture of an application

[Update] This plugin is now available in form of a Visual Studio Add-In

Tom Carter
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