Dia - Free Diagram Creation Program

Gmodeler from Grant Skinner is a fantastic tool for UML for ActionScript Classes/Packages. I am pretty sure anybody using it would be really happy with the same.

Lately, I was on the lookout for a general purpose diagramming program - something simple. I even tried out coupla Commercial Trials, Shareware, Freewares and I found Dia to be the one that I really liked. Dia is a gtk+ based diagram creation program released under the GPL license.

Though I have not really tried out all the features except for the UML and some relationship Diagrams, Dia claims to have special objects to help draw entity relationship diagrams, UML diagrams, flowcharts, network diagrams and simple circuits. It is also possible to add support for new shapes by writing simple XML files, using a subset of SVG to draw the shape.

One particular feature I really needed was the ability to quickly export in some graphically viewable format (JPEG, etc). I found some Free, Open Source tool but lacking in the ability to do exports effectively. Dia can export diagrams to EPS or SVG and many other common formats besides being able to load and save diagrams to a custom XML format (gzipped by default). Of course, it comes complete with the ability to print the diagrams, including ones that span multiple pages.

Note: This post marks the 500th article on Brajeshwar.com!