Hi Walter,

I tried yesterday to work with ArgoUML.

It was a bit of a pain. For some unknown reason the program decided I needed to have the interface in Russian. That was a bit frustrating :(

I was also installing SP2 for SQL Server 2005 and the application was really slow (perhaps of that). Also the interface was not really intuitive and simple to use, in my opinion. So, at the end I was only able to design 3 classes and decided to call it a day.

>It's getting a bit late in this thread to help with your immediate need, but since noone mentioned it, or indeed much in specific tools, I'll pitch in.
>
>I assume you mean some kind of UML class diagram, since you didn't specify.
>
>ArgoUML is a free UML diagrammer written in Java, home page gives screenshots etc. I've used it, and consider it pretty good and well-suited to a programmer's needs. - http://argouml.tigris.org/
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>Only exports to bitmap (eg PNG), SVG or postscript, but frankly, if that is a problem, it's a problem with your word processor or whatever (however you'd fix it is another issue ...). These are sensible, non-proprietary formats for graphics and I can't think of a better format that isn't tied to some application (ODF perhaps shows hope but how many tools, apart from OO.o can read and write .odg files?).
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>Also there is quite a list at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_UML_tools
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>Of the ones lists there, I only have experience with Dia (venerable, looks almost like an open-source Visio, but I found it frustrating and gave up); Visio (capable but pricey); and Visual Studio (hate it).
>
>Otherwise, for many diagramming needs I use a sharp pencil, ruler, eraser, and a good scanner. Has been quick and easy and NEVER have to fish around menus or property dialogs looking for some way to achieve what I want. (That said, trying to draw a UML diagram of any size is not for the faint-hearted. Can't beat it on sketches for communicating design concepts, though)
>
>Walter