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Software for Making Company Diagrams?
gaudenz asks: "We have a network with Linux, Solaris, Mac and Windows and need a software to paint simple diagrams, such as used in deployment. The actual requirements are simple: The tool must export to postscript, support fonts, boxes with multiple lines of text, and connections between these boxes. We found Visio with VMWare to be the best solution, JGraphpad 5 looks promising, too. Since diagrams are a common thing in development companies I was hoping others have made a comparison, too, and may come up with some other ideas to solve this problem."
http://www.xfig.org/
Once again, the great LWN has something to help you. Check out part 1 and part 2 of "The Grumpy Editor's Guide to diagram editors". I have no expiriance with any diagram software, so that's all that I can offer you.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
I played around with this. Not very useful for me, but it may work for you. It doesn't export to postscript, but it exports to HTML. :-\ Give it a look. http://freemind.sourceforge.net/
A better product.. than... what?
He's looking for a product. Do you know of one?
And I don't think Word does what he's looking for.
Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
Also, Dia (should've come with your Linux distribution as part of GNOME) but I personally find xfig more "intuitive". ;-)
;-)
And modern XFig even has libraries of simbols for standard network/computer/rack/whatever equipment.
Paul B.
P.S. The best part is that the storage format is all plain-text ASCII, I've done a number of "Increase all font sizes to 14 pt" with sed and/or awk.
under Linux is Dia.
I am not claiming it is a great app. I happen to think it needs a lot of work. However for a quick drawing, to do flow chart type work, you should find it viable.
Good luck.
-Rusty
You never know...
I use Kivio. Works well. And is relativly feature rich. I believe is supports most of what you're looking for.
/. is a bunch of nerds at a million typewriters. It's not a political conspiracy determined to undermine your beliefs.
Recently, I was creating an OpenOffice.org document and needed a couple of diagrams.. After
searching through the menu for a few moments, I came across Dia.
Dia fits all of the listed requirements from what I can tell. Its interface and features are very
similar to Visio IMO.. In addition, It loads much much faster than Visio.
I created two mini-network diagrams quite easily on my first use. I exported those to PNG
(EPS is available in a couple of formats) and inserted/scaled them into my document.
Overall, I was quite impressed.
You've already mentioned Visio works for you - why are you looking for something else? Do you need something that's Linux native?
Because this is a GTK application, the menus are very Gimp-like. That can take some getting used to for those accustomed to doing things the Microsoft way.
You might want to look at graphviz:
http://www.research.att.com/sw/tools/graphviz
I've used the mac os x port and found it will create graphs from possibly script-generated input files in a simple syntax.
Dia is just that, a diagraming tool. That's all it does.
It's not a presentation tool or graphical design tool.
Visio is a cross between a diagramming tool, a VB environment, and Illustrator. That's a hard act to follow. (And it wasn't originally a Microsoft product either).
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
On the OS X front, there's Omnigraffle. It exports to a wide variety of formats, PostScript included.
Also has the charting functions you'd be looking for.
I'd say: Dia and Impress (OO.org) offer basic diagramming functionality. Also Xfig does the job (although requiring the user to move the connecting lines when moving objects).
Visual Thought is freeware. Works on Windows, Solaris, HP, and Linux (under Wine).
I know, I know this may start a holy war. . .
The best thing I've done, from the networking group's standpoint is use Emacs (found bit of code to draw lines with the arrow keys) to make boxes and diagrams. No pictures that take forever to load, no Visio bloatware. ASCII rules. Make the boxes big enough to add text info and cut and paste are your friend. I hate going to Visio or Visio jpg images now. And I can lay down an ascii diagram in 25 percent of the time it takes to make the same pretty Visio. The only downside is PHB likes pretty color pictures.
Our diagrams are on a web server and are periodically burned to CD for road trips. You can check it out at http://10.48.100.228
I was going to say that I knew of none that included libraries with such important symbols as "Man with head inserted in anus" and "The whipmaster". However, it seems you only need an application that has computer and network symbols, so you have your pick of several.
Of course, they won't be able to do managerial or organizational charts...
Be a real man and hand-code your own postscript graphics. It's really not that difficult. Really.
Not the best, but it works across all platforms.
TGIF and Impress are other choices.
GEF if you want to roll your own.
Wow, only a few mentions of Omnigraffle. It's the best for this sort of thing, very simple and lightweight.
Recently, while working on a specification document, I had need to provde inline documentation.
:) )
At the time I was working with a combination of DocBook (try XMLmind - brilliant) and OpenOffice.
Much to my surprise, the diagram editing facilities in the wordprocessor are quite acceptable, if limited. For quick, and sometimes moderatley complicated, diagrams it does quite well. What it loses in power is often made up for by convenience. I'd certainly give it a try if you are writing with OpenOffice already.
The dedicated drawing program is also quite good, although not as powerful as something like Visio.
All that said, though, for simple flow and org charts, I'd really love to have an up to date version of Haventree EasyFlow (attack sharks, and all
It's posts like the parent that makes me think there should be another moderation, "Trog". Short for 'Troglodyte', it would be similar to 'Troll', but with added 'Ug!" :)
:)
Visio is a good product, but expensive, as is the Windows license it needs as well.
Word is also expensive and no better than OpenOffice. In fact, in a modern environment OO can often win because of being cross platform.
This person needs to add up all the costs, put his brain in gear, and then make a posting. If he is still happy with spending more money than he has to, then I have a few bridges he might like to buy
Governments already tax us more than they have justification for, why accept 'taxes' from large companies, as well?
I'm not an OpenSources zealot. I earn my money from both consultancy (often using Open Source) and writing and licensing of Closed Source software. Both have their place and each decision is individual. when I set up dev teams or offices, I usually choose OpenSource since it is cheap and I have less licensing concerns. When someone needs to interact with us, it costs them nothing to comply with our 'standards'. That said, I own and use PhotoShop, Dreamweaver, Visaul Studio and other high cost closed source systems.
Choose the tool for the job. Don't follow the sheep or the brainwashed M$/SCO/etc FUD mongers!
Seriously. Far as I'm concerned, Omnigraffle is worth getting a mac for. It's that good.
OmniGraffle is an absurdly easy-to-use Mac OS X application that follows the NEXTSTEP Diagram2 model. I ditched Visio for it quickly. However, since you need some degree of cross-platform ability, the pro version of OmniGraffle can do the Visio format. This is a lot cheaper than using VPC, and you may find your PC people ditching their PCs when doing diagrams.
$120 @ http://www.omnigroup.com/
"The tool must export to postscript, support fonts, boxes with multiple lines of text, and connections between these boxes."
OpenOffice Draw is so perfect for this job that it's not even an interesting question. Imagine something like Visio, but better, Free, and native to linux. Doesn't crash like Dia, easier to use, more versatile, and handles all the "linked boxes with translucent backgrounds and text some of which is in different colours or styles" that you'll ever need.
I assume that "print to file" generates some sort of postscript output, but it certainly supports saving as PDF, in addition to bitmap output options. You do know that ImageMagick makes it trivial to convert between images, PS, and PDF from the command-line?
OmniGraffle by the good folks at the OmniGroup Is the best diagramming software I have seen or used. Very slick interface, and easy to use but powerful at the same time. Can't export to PS, but you can always use pdf2ps to convert exported PDF's.
fsck -u
I've been looking at this very subject in terms of making use of OWL files and
came up with a javascript powered SVG which worked... though perhaps not
brilliantly. It's at http://tinyurl.com/4s58r. By the way, I'd
welcome comments on code/implementation... Unfortunately it only works under IE
with the adobe SVG plugin.
I have just quietly introduced Ghostscript as the workaround. The Visio viewer is really just an IE plugin so not much use when viewing a Word document.
See my journal, I write things there
Is rather more powerful than Micrsoft picture, it's closer to visio (though lacks the extensive library of ready-made shapes).
It's wacky OpenGL 3D-effect objects are a big hit with the PHBs, too.
My usual 'trick' to deal with having as many people able to view docs as possible is to convert them to PDF format, since there are PDF viewers freely available for most platforms (including my Treo600 :) )
:)
This can be done simply and cheaply under windows by installing a postscript printer (I use LaserWriterII), printing through the driver to a file, then using 'ps2pdf' under cygwin. This usually does the trick for me although there are probably simpler methods available
Broadly what I use (gs under cygwin). However the printer driver I use is Adobe's with the Adobe PPD which essentially gives everything (including colour).
See my journal, I write things there
The open office drawing program should do exactly what you need. It can do everything you wanted and then some.
ConceptDraw is an Awesome piece of software that I have used for flow charts, cubicle diagrams and some huge charts that were 14 ft. x 6 ft. and had about 80,000 data points.
Reality is all that stuff that doesn't care if you believe in it or not.--Solomon Short
I like Visio, although overkill just for 'office diagrams'. We have a big problem at the moment on a big project because there aren't enough Visio licenses to go around so the specs can be read properly (generally, they are Word with embedded Viso objects). This is, btw, a major bank!
Ummm, you know, you can download a free visio viewer application from Microsoft.
Which bank is this? It's one thing to be cheap, it's another thing to be idiotic!