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Free, non-sucky UML software?

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f0dder:
So... while I'm still somewhat skeptical about UML, school has made me realize that it has it's uses - and if it's something that I'll have to deal with the next 2½ years, I might as well get comfortable with it.

We use Visual Paradigm at school, which seems relatively OK. It has some bugs here and there, though, and school doesn't want to cash out to get licenses for newer versions. It's also relatively heavy, and it seems like it can do a zillion things I don't really need. Also, since it has an academic license, I probably shouldn't use it for anything not school-related.

I've looked around a bit, and stumbled upon StarUML... which kinda sucks. Huge, pretty heavy, and I couldn't find hotkeys for adding methods/properties. Ended up uninstalling it pretty quickly, it seemed pretty shoddy compared to Visual Paradigm - which doesn't even feel that great to begin with.

So I'm wondering, does anybody have other recommendations? Preferably freeware/opensource, not too bulky, comfortable to work with etc...

Lashiec:
There are a bunch of UML tools, but I'm afraid most of them are not exactly up to the task. When I worked with VP, I checked up ArgoUML as my computer at the time could not cope with the tremendous load of Visual Paradigm. It did not last too long, as I was able to do some of the things the project I was into at the time required, so I discarded it. Perhaps it improved since then (2 years passed), but I would not count on it. Dia also supports UML, but never tested it, and supposedly there are a few plugins for Eclipse and probably other IDEs.

IIRC, there was a free version of Visual Paradigm that required registration. It was far less featured than the normal versions, but perhaps it would just suffice for your projects, considering the normal versions went for the kitchen-sink approach. They could be (hopefully) lighter and less buggy as well.

iphigenie:
I will check the one that comes with netbeans and let you know how it fares - always meant to but never tested it

tinjaw:
Confession: I haven't used any UML tools yet. However, I have some bookmarks.

Free "Community" Editon of Visual Paradigm
http://www.visual-paradigm.com/product/vpuml/communityedition.jsp

ArgoUML - open source
http://argouml.tigris.org/

PapyrusUML (eclipse)
http://www.papyrusuml.org/scripts/home/publigen/content/templates/show.asp?P=130&L=EN&ITEMID=4

iphigenie:
netbeans uml http://www.netbeans.org/features/uml/index.html
as i said not used the uml bit yet, but i like netbeans a lot as an ide for java, javascript and now php and ruby.

8 UML diagrams: Activity diagram, Class diagram, Collaboration diagram, Component diagram, Deployment diagram, Sequence diagram, State diagram, and Use Case diagram
--- End quote ---

screencasts http://www.netbeans.org/kb/60/uml/screencasts.html
uml learning track http://www.netbeans.org/kb/trails/uml.html

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