There are many tools for editing UML diagrams. I conducted a little comparison to find a good tool to use in a software engineering course in the Spring of 2000. This page lists requirements for good UML tools and reviews a number of existing tools. Since I put the page up I have had some requests from tool vendors to add a link to their tool. I have moved the page to the program-transformation.org wiki such that anyone can add to this page. Feel free to add more links and reviews by selecting the Edit link in the sidebar. -- EelcoVisser - 19 Nov 2001

Requirements for UML Tools

Functionality

  • Diagram composition
    • Completeness: How much of UML is supported?
    • Can diagrams be layed out automatically? What is the quality of the automatic layout?
  • Code generation
    • Is it possible to generate code from diagrams?
    • Which languages are covered?
  • Reverse engineering
    • Is it possible to generate diagrams from existing code?
    • Which languages are covered? To what extent?
  • Round-trip engineering
    • Is it possible to keep diagrams and code in sync?

Constraints

  • Availability
    • Price
    • Student/academic edition
  • Performance
    • Is drawing and manipulating diagrams realtime?
  • Open
    • Can the tool be combined with other tools?
  • Open source
    • Is it possible to improve and extend the tool?

Existing Tools

There are numerous tools for creating and manipulating UML diagrams. I have looked at a few of them

  • Rational Rose
  • Object Domain
    • http://www.objectdomain.com
    • implemented in Java (portable)
    • supports round-trip engineering
    • supports HTML documentation generation
    • affordable academic license ($95)
  • ArgoUML?
    • http://argouml.tigris.org
    • open source (free)
    • implemented in Java
    • fast
    • supports Java generation, but not reverse engineering
  • TogetherSoft?
    • http://www.togethersoft.com
    • expensive full edition, free whiteboard edition (only supports class diagrams)
    • implemented in Java
    • supports instaneous synchronisation between model and code

The reviews above were conducted in the Spring of 2000 and might be out of date.

There are a number of other tools that I haven't had time for to look at:


CategorySystem | Contributions by EelcoVisser

Revision: r1.1 - 19 Nov 2001 - 08:30 - EelcoVisser
Transform > UmlTools
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