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I am looking for a UML design tool (just for design, no need for code generation).

Key features

  1. Free
  2. For Linux
  3. Easy to use
  4. Lightweight
Kamal
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  • While not strictly for UML I use [JavE](http://www.jave.de/). Since all the drawings are plain text I can paste them into my wiki, markdown files in VCS etc. and easily modify and see changes between revisions. It's easy to use but you get no shapes out of the box. You can export and save your own, though. [Example diagram](http://i.stack.imgur.com/rTM7o.png). – Johnny Baloney Jun 06 '16 at 06:56
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    If you want a tool to please your boss, but don't want to spend much time on diagramming. Or you want to visualise your code. Then checkout Doxygen. It reads code and generates diagrams. We first used it to get our boss off of our back, he wanted everything documented (but documents get out of date). Later I used it sometimes, to visualise the code that we had. It is good to get an overview. It does not do all UML diagrams. But what it does do is automated. The few other diagrams that we made, we did by hand, on a white board, and made a photograph. – ctrl-alt-delor May 08 '18 at 11:08
  • I tried doxygen, graphviz following [how-to-use-doxygen-to-create-uml-class-diagrams-from-c-source](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4755913/how-to-use-doxygen-to-create-uml-class-diagrams-from-c-source) – Nick Dong Aug 24 '21 at 14:34

8 Answers8

80

Most of the UML tools for Linux look really bad, but you could use these:

Experimental/alternatives:

  • ASCII flow - you can not always include images in documentation but simple text looks everywhere same, good to use in code for quick overview.

  • Cloudcraft - Draw AWS diagrams with Cloudcraft. Good for quick architecture diagrams.

For quick drawings and who does not scare to "code" some diagrams I also suggest to take look at this product http://yuml.me/diagram/scruffy/class/samples.

informatik01
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Risto Novik
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    I am using ArgoUML for now. But it is a big pain in the backside. Very limited support for UML models and connectors. Something is better than nothing. – Kamal Feb 14 '12 at 05:11
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    It is Umbrello not Umbrella (for those doing a search in a package manager.) – Cory-G Aug 18 '14 at 20:38
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    The problem is that most of these tools are dead. Alone Dia (which I really like) hasn't seen an update for over 6 years. – rbaleksandar Feb 21 '17 at 08:37
  • @rbaleksandar I have to agree with you, but the processes/diagrams haven't "much" changed. With the adoption of agile frameworks, I see less and less heavy documented projects with UML diagrams etc. This doesn't mean the documentation is less important it still should be part of the process. – Risto Novik Feb 21 '17 at 09:02
  • Personally I would go with Inkscape if no code import is required. Since SVGs are XML-based you can speed up the process of adding repetitive data (plus the fact that there are multiple libraries that support working with SVGs hence you can use your programming skills to do things pretty fast). And last but not least you can make things look rather pretty. :) PS: Never said that documentation is to be neglected but getting used to a tool that is out-of-date and not knowing whether the next release of your distro would break it completely is a waste of time omho. – rbaleksandar Feb 21 '17 at 09:16
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    Of course I'm only referring to the dead tools. Umbrello for example seems to still be alive though it requires loads of KDE packages and if you are not using KDE...well... :D – rbaleksandar Feb 21 '17 at 09:17
  • This Cloudcraft is incredible good. Didn't know until read this answer. – Rodrigo Gurgel Apr 07 '17 at 13:14
  • Umbrello has been updated this month and already seems more intuitive to use than dia. Both were in the Linux Mint repos.. – cardamom Sep 19 '17 at 13:04
  • Doxygen for automation. Only does a few types of diagram, but it generates them from your code (add it to your build process). – ctrl-alt-delor May 08 '18 at 11:10
12

i like UMLet: http://www.umlet.com/. It's very light weight

gefei
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9

Did you mean a tool to draw the diagram? Try Dia Diagram Editor.

Muhammad Abrar
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8

I just discovered Violet UML. Easy to use, lightweight, diagrams look ok for me: I picked it for my use!

See here : http://alexdp.free.fr/violetumleditor/page.php

jmclem
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6

I use gaphor which is GTK2 based and draws nice diagrams using cairo. It's Python based and can analyze and display Python code in UML.

Best install from PyPI: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/gaphor

Github: https://github.com/gaphor/gaphor

Website: https://gaphor.org/

thet
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3

You can find a metalist of lists of UML open source tools here: http://modeling-languages.com/uml-tools/#open

Jordi Cabot
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2

I use the Obeo UML Designer that you can find in the Eclipse Marketplace.

It goes very well together with the Acceleo toolkit for MDSD.

I think the major selling point for any modeling tool is that it has to be able to produce an output that can be fed into your toolchain.

I have never seen models that just exist for pure documentary purposes survive more than two or three cycles in a project. That sort of stuff usually never works, because the changes in the project are executed first and then the model is adapted. This kind of work is rightfully regarded as either braindead or luxury (depending on who you ask).

The correct way is that changes in the project must be driven by changes in the model.

Sergey Vyacheslavovich Brunov
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mwhs
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  • this appears to be a direct download link with stand alone version for Linux http://www.umldesigner.org/download/ – JesseBoyd Aug 14 '17 at 18:38
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I liked BOUML but now the free version is no longer available... there is a fork named DOUML, check it out

Chris Chambers
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user4574570
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