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I want to use the markup syntax to describe my project. In this, I really like to draw diagrams to create better explanations. Is there a good, maintainable way to do so? I do not like to draw the diagram somewhere else and then have to update it. A good way would be to draw the diagram directly in markup.

Any good ideas how to do this?

In case this is not possible - which open source UML tool do you prefer then?

Michael Wagner
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    There are lots of options: [Mermaid](https://mermaid-js.github.io/), [PlantUML](https://plantuml.com/), [asciiflow](https://asciiflow.com/), [...](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=ascii+drawing+tool), [...](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=diagram+from+text+format), but we're not here to recommend one. Please read about what's on-topic in the [help/on-topic]. These types of questions are explicitly _off-topic_ as they tend to attract opinionated answers and spam. – ChrisGPT was on strike Dec 15 '21 at 12:43
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    I would strongly encourage you to look at [Umlet](https://www.umlet.com/) for creating simple UML diagrams. It's lightweight, simple ... and it allows both WYSIWYG drag/drop as well as text editing. Then save your diagrams to .png, .svg (or whatever) and use `[alt text]` in your markdown: [How to add images to README.md on GitHub?](https://stackoverflow.com/a/14494775/421195). – paulsm4 Dec 25 '21 at 02:54

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Good evening!

The UML diagram tools are different. That's why the tool will be depend on your diagram type. The most common tool you can use is:

I use StarUML for drawing UML class diagrams (https://staruml.io/).

You can use VisualParadigm or PowerDesigner or EnterpriseArchitect for that purpose, but it's like shooting birds with cannon (too costly).

If you want to draw diagrams from the text, you can use PlantUML. Just add this addon to your EDI, make a file with plantuml format, spend 10 minuts in the guide page (https://plantuml.com/ru/) and draw your sequence by text. You can easy draw UML sequence diagram without any addons. But if you need to make another types of UML diagrams you will have to use some extension for the plantUML.

Here you can find more information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Unified_Modeling_Language_tools

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    Unfortunately, UML was discontinued from Visio Professional in 2013: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/discontinued-features-and-changed-functionality-in-visio-2013-6e883c38-a597-418a-9e27-11f73a673b5c. I believe Microsoft recently brought back some UML support in some Office 365 versions: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/uml-diagrams-in-visio-ca4e3ae9-d413-4c94-8a7a-38dac30cbed6 I would consider [Umlet](https://umlet.com) as a nice, effective Open Source alternative. – FoggyDay Dec 25 '21 at 03:00
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You can use Lucid Chart to draw the UML diagrams. link

MagnusEffect
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