Comparison: UML Tools

In Progress

Here we go again... I've done random searches for UML tools before, but this time, I figured I'd go ahead and document it. I probably won't make this as extensive of a search as I usually do just for the simple fact that I don't need a tool that bad right now. As always, let me know if you know of one that I haven't mentioned or if my data is incorrect or out-dated.

Updated Dec 9, 2005

Overview

I'll be noting the tool, version, and date I last reviewed it as well as comparing the following features: the language used to develop the tool (lang); XMI import (m)/export (x) capabilities (xmi); whether the tool supports use case (uc), activity (ac), class (cl), and sequence (seq) diagrams; output formats (image (i), HTML (h), PDF (p), Word (w), Excel (e), and PowerPoint(t)); forward (f)/reverse (r) engineering in C/C++, C#, Java, and VB; code templates (temp); when the tool was last updated (upd); and, finally, whether there is a demo (or screenshots) available.

Tool	Ver	Date	Lang	XMI	UC	Ac	Cl	Seq	Out	C/C++	C#	Java	Temp	MDA	Upd	Demo	Score
StarUML	4.5	Dec 05	Java	mx	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	wet	fr	fr	fr	Yes	Yes		Yes	12
Umbrello	1.4		C		Yes	Yes	Yes			r		r			Mar 2005	Yes	5
UMLet	4.5		Java		Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	ip							Yes	6

If a cell is blank, the feature has been neither confirmed nor denied. Positive or desired responses have also been highlighted. The score accounts for the number of desired responses.

Some of the tools I have yet to review are listed below. I don't know if these are all open source or not and have actually questioned whether I should include free commercial tools, too. Either way, these tools are in no particular order and I will get to them all in time...just, probably a long time. Any and all help is appreciated! Thanks.

ArgoUML - http://www.argouml.org/
UML Library for Java - http://sourceforge.net/projects/nsuml/
Quick UML for Java - http://sourceforge.net/projects/quj/
UML Sculptor - http://sourceforge.net/projects/umlsculptor/
Dia - http://www.lysator.liu.se/~alla/dia; http://hans.breuer.org/dia; http://dia-installer.sourceforge.net
Omondo - www.omondo.com
Posseidon - http://www.gentleware.com/products/download.php3
jDes Community Edition - http://www.javaportal.co.uk/links.uml
Napkin - http://cube42.com/tiki-index.php?page=Napkin
Flux - http://flux4eclipse.sourceforge.net
MDE - http://www.m1global.com/
UniMod - http://unimod.sf.net/
Slime UML - http://www.mvmsoft.de/content/plugins/slime/
Konesa Modeller - http://www.canyonblue.com/products.htm
Fujaba - http://www.fujaba.de
Way Pointer - http://www.jaczone.com/product/overview
FL - http://www.novosoft-us.com/solutions/tools.shtml
Rapid RMA - http://www.tripac.com/html/prod-toc.html
UMLGraph - http://www.spinellis.gr/sw/umlgraph
AndroMDA - http://www.andromda.org/index.html
OptimalJ - http://www.compuware.com/products/optimalj
Aris UML Designer - http://www.ids-scheer.com/aris-uml-designer
Jude Bamboo - http://objectclub.esm.co.jp/Jude/jude-e.html
JDeveloper - http://otn.oracle.com/products/jdev/content.html
UMT-QVT - https://sourceforge.net/projects/umt-qvt
Visual Paradigm for UML Community - http://www.visual-paradigm.com/productinfovpumlce.php
Unimodeller - http://www.unimodeler.com
DOME - http://www.htc.honeywell.com/dome
Delphia Object Modeller (D.OM) - http://www.si.fr.atosorigin.com/dom/english/index.html
Codagen Architect - http://www.codagen.com/products/architect/default.htm
ESS-Model - http://essmodel.sourceforge.net
Describe - http://www.embarcadero.com/products/describe
Rhapsody Developer Edition - http://www.ilogix.com
MasterCraft Component Modeller - http://www.tata-mastercraft.com/overview.asp
Mega Suite - http://www.mega.com/us/product/overview
MetaBase Modeler - http://www.metamatrix.com/l3_metabase.html
System Architect - http://www.popkin.com/products/system_architect.htm
ProxyDesigner - http://www.proxysource.com/home.asp?href=Products/ProxyDesigner.html
Tau UML Suite - http://www.telelogic.com/products/tau/uml/index.cfm
Visible Analyst - http://www.visible.com/Products/Analyst/vaooedition.html
Real-time Studio Pro - http://www.artisansw.com/products/professional_overview.asp
Ameos - http://www.aonix.com/ameos.html
Software through Pictures UML - http://www.aonix.com/stp_uml.html
AllFusion Component Modeler - http://www.cai.com/products/alm/paradigm_plus.htm
Innovator - http://www.mid.de/en/innovator
BridgePoint - http://www.projtech.com/prods/bp/info.html
Objecteering Personal Edition - http://www.objecteering.com/products.php
OpenTool - http://www.tni-valiosys.com/?p=industry&s=aerospace&ss=opentool&type=overview
ObjectGeode - http://www.telelogic.com/products/additional/objectgeode/index.cfm
OpenMDX - http://www.openmdx.com

StarUML (Go)

Holy hell! I've died and gone to UML heaven! Granted, all I've done is look at the vendor site, but the features this tool boasts of are better than any I've ever seen before - IBM Rational Rose, Microsoft Visio, Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect... none of them can touch it! Due out for the 5.0 version by the end of 2005, I can't wait to play with it. The only thing that comes to mind to say about this tool is: it's sexy. Heck, I don't even want to bother looking at the 50 or so tools I listed above. This is my new sexy lady and I'm takin' her out for some good times! (Ok, now you know I'm a geek)

[ Overview ]

Ubrello (Go)

This was originally built for KDE and was ported to Windows, but requires Cygwin. I don't really like the look of it too much and can't really tell how conformant to UML it is, but it seems like a decent tool. It seems like most of the screenshots are proving its cross-platform support as opposed to features, which is kind of disappointing.

[ Overview ]

UMLet (Go)

The tool looks to be pretty light-weight and it comes as an Eclipse plugin, too, so that's definitely a plus. The tool requires Java 1.5, but that's not that big of a deal. The screenshots aren't all that great as showing you what the user experience is like, so I'm kind of wondering how that would be. Despite that, for simplicity, this tool is probably the answer for a lot of shops.

[ Overview ]

My Conclusions

[Dec 9, 2005]
StarUML!!!! Where's that blink tag when you need it!? Anyway, I haven't played with it yet, but I'm excited (as if you couldn't tell by my description of it above). As soon as I post this, I'll be downloading it, exporting one of my Rose models (Rose is mandated by the org I work for, but I can probably get away with this tool), importing it into StarUML, and making the updates I was just about to get started on. I estimate fun times to be had by all (read: me). Can't wait to get my hands dirty!

[May 12, 2005]
I have yet to decide on a tool for sure, so please, be patient. Feel free to post any comments pertaining to your tool of choice.

Helpful Links

Here's a few links that might be helpful in choosing the best tool for your team. Hopefully you find them useful, too.

UML Programs (on Wikipedia): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_UML_programs
UML Products (on Objects by Design): http://www.objectsbydesign.com/tools/umltools_byPrice.html

posted on Thursday, May 12, 2005 8:45 AM

Feedback

# re: Comparison: UML Tools 6/30/2005 11:43 AM Woo

I've started using Umbrello for Activity Diagrams only. I was put off at first by the messy sample diagrams with diagonal lines but in fact by double clicking on the lines you can add or remove 'elbows' in the lines and make much cleaner diagrams. As activitities are moved relative to one another, the attachment points automatically move around the perimeter of the shapes. I'm very impressed.

# re: Comparison: UML Tools 7/22/2005 10:57 AM Bela Hargitai

no comment

and

thanks

# re: Comparison: UML Tools 12/9/2005 5:04 AM Stefan Tzanev

I've been using Jude (Community edition) for about two years:
- It's very intuitive and efficient (it does only Unified Modeling Language (UML), but it does it right).
- It's getting better with each new release.
- It's free (actually, the best free modeling tool I've found so far).
- (unfortunately) it does not support UML 2.0 yet

# re: Comparison: UML Tools 1/19/2006 12:12 AM teddy

what's the differences between the Rhapsody development Edittion and system Edition?

# re: Comparison: UML Tools 3/13/2006 4:31 AM dm

And...? What's your impression of StarUML 5.0?

# re: Comparison: UML Tools 3/13/2006 4:46 AM Michael Flanakin

I'm absolutely loving StarUML. I did notice one or two very small quirks in the pre-release versions, but I think those have been taken care of - at least as far as I can tell. There are also things that it doesn't do compared to my favorite licensed tool, Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect, but that's the price you pay when it comes to open source.

As far as open source goes, however, no tool that I've seen touches StarUML! I would continue doing evaluations, but it'd be a waste of time. If someone truly believes that a tool might beat StarUML, let me know and I'll take a look.

# re: Comparison: UML Tools 5/18/2006 6:08 AM Wafi

do you have any idea about profile support and compliance with uml infrastructure and superstructure.

# re: Comparison: UML Tools 6/9/2007 8:34 PM C

don't know why so much excitement about StarUML..nothing great except its free

# re: Comparison: UML Tools 7/3/2007 9:36 AM Rodolfo Campero

As you have interest in XMI, I guess you want to do something with your models when you're done working with the diagramming tool. If this is the case, you may want to take a look at nUML [1], a UML library for .NET.

With nUML you can read your XMI files, obtaining an object graph with instances of Class, Property, Operation, Interface and so on. It works natively with UML 2.0 and XMI 2.1, but XSLT files are provided so you can import files generated with other tools (e.g. ArgoUML). You can modify the objects and then save them in a new XMI file, completing the roundtrip.

I hope you enjoy it.

Regards,
Rodolfo

[1] http://numl.sourceforge.net/index.php/Main_Page

# re: Comparison: UML Tools 7/30/2007 2:44 AM chidu

I use another open source UML tool and it is real cool: http://bouml.free.fr/

# re: Comparison: UML Tools 8/8/2007 1:08 AM Suhas Chavan

I am trying to use Ameos Open Source UML Technology.
Can i review from you all , so that how can i go about it?

# re: Comparison: UML Tools 12/8/2007 3:27 PM Pascal

You should seriously test the following two products:
Visual Paradigm
and MagicDraw UML

VP emphasis the ease of use, while MagicDraw is more on the UML2 adherence and completeness side.

Both are light years beyond StarUML and similar.

# re: Comparison: UML Tools 4/23/2008 7:41 PM thearchitect

Altova Umodel 2008 is what i chose over all others for .Net integration.

# Trace Modeler 5/7/2008 9:42 AM Yanic

Perhaps you can include Trace Modeler, a smart and easy-to-use editor for UML sequence diagrams.

It combines a simple drag & drop interface with automatic layout of diagrams.

# Trace Modeler 5/7/2008 9:45 AM Yanic

Oops, forgot the link for Trace Modeler. Here's a 30 sec demo.

# re: Comparison: UML Tools 9/18/2008 5:21 AM Michel Huybrechts

You could include our ATO tool, which is a light-weight MDD (Model Driven Development) tool offering UML modeling, transformations, code generations and documentation generation. It consists of an UML modeler driven by a profile and a Profile Editor. The UML modeler offers the usual diagrams. You can download a complete manual from our website, together with a demonstration version of our ATO tool.

# re: Comparison: UML Tools 10/20/2009 4:00 PM Buy web design

Great guidelines about this tool. Thanks

# re: Comparison: UML Tools 11/4/2009 5:34 AM desene animate

thanks for this great info

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