Yesterday I had a request from a client for a network diagram for a system I’m designing, and normally I create such drawings as a PNG file. But this client said “no, I need it in Visio, or similar style so we can edit it”. I have avoided Microsoft Visio in the past, mainly because of its price tag: $249.99 for the basic version, and a whopping $999.99 for the premium version!
That’s a lot of moolah for a simple drawing program. But I figured it was time to bite the bullet and just buy it. So I drove to my local Staples and was going to pick up a copy. I actually had it in hand…and then some serendipity happened.
I was passing the table where they have all the laptops, and this fellow was lifting up and looking over a familiar laptop, one that I had gotten for my lovely wife on her birthday and I commented as I was walking by him “That’s a good buy, I bought one for my wife.”. To which he responded. “That’s good to hear, but do you know if it has wireless 3G?”. I started to explain that such options are usually with add-ons, such as special USB wireless dongles sold by cellular companies, but it seemed to baffle him.
So, I explained the differences between WiFi and 3G/4G services and said, “that laptop is probably already connected to WiFi right here in the store, see that Starbucks next door? They have free WiFi”. He was amazed to discover this, even more amazed when I pointed out to him that every McDonald’s in the USA has free WiFi now also, as do most hotels, and some airports.
To which he replied “Well, I suppose I don’t need to pay for 3G then do I?” That struck me, because at that moment, I realized I might not have to pay for Visio either; not because I planned on shoplifting it from the store, but because I hadn’t checked for alternatives yet.
I said, here, let me show you. And I showed him how to connect to WiFi on the laptop, then proceeded to Google “Visio replacement”.
Some hits came up. Most were dead-ends…but one wasn’t, and that’s what I want to share with you today.
Since many WUWT readers are scientists, engineers and business people, they need something like Visio on occasion to map networks, processes, flowcharts, structure trees, etc.
So I want to share “Dia”, short for “Diagram”. Its detailed, open source, and most importantly, free. It also has a community springing up that is adding shape sets for various specialty designs.
From the Dia web page:
Dia is a GTK+ based diagram creation program for GNU/Linux, Unix and Windows released under the GPL license.
Dia is roughly inspired by the commercial Windows program ‘Visio’, though more geared towards informal diagrams for casual use. It can be used to draw many different kinds of diagrams. It currently has special objects to help draw entity relationship diagrams, UML diagrams, flowcharts, network diagrams, and many other diagrams. It is also possible to add support for new shapes by writing simple XML files, using a subset of SVG to draw the shape.
It can load and save diagrams to a custom XML format (gzipped by default, to save space), can export diagrams to a number of formats, including EPS, SVG, XFIG, WMF and PNG, and can print diagrams (including ones that span multiple pages).
We feel Dia is in a state where it can be actively used. Many features are implemented and the code is quite solid and mature. Try downloading Dia and tell us what you think of it. If you find any bugs, please report them with Gnome Bugzilla.
It seems pretty snazzy, and intuitive. I was able to doodle this up within seconds of opening the program:
So, for what I need to do, a networking flow diagram, it’s perfect, and free.
Some other examples for other venues are here.
My advice, get it. You’ve nothing to lose, everything to gain. While you are at it, if you want a simple and easy to use graphing program, may I suggest Dplot, which I also use. It’s a trial, and registration is cheap, and it has paid for itself many times over.
No this isn’t a commercial or paid plug, just stuff I thought I’d share this holiday season with thanks to the guy who needed some help understanding WiFi and 3G. It just goes to show that sometimes, good deeds are repaid.
For non scientist type stuff may I recommend,
Serif.com,
there is some free stuff shareware for desktop publishing, to try before buy.
The goodwife (Goody Heather), got a programm for the Christmas book at her the Childcare place she works, cheap and excellent, she was up and running in minutes.
We searched for a while. I was back from Mermink hunting and as a sailor boy she made me surf for awhile. She done personal 18 books in just about no time, just images and stuff.
Very clicky and pointy.
Ohh and I should have mentioned Xara. An excellent and affordable vector drawing package, with a good pedigree. Worth a trial I would suggest – and no I’m not connected to the company:-)
I don’t have a current need for a Visio like program, but I will keep Diagram in mind. Thank you for the information.
I also do not like the versions of Microsoft Office that came after its 2003 version; nor did I want to unlearn the 2003 version and learn a new one. I then tried OpenOffice on a new laptop, but found its menu system and short cut keys just too different from Microsoft’s Office 2003 that I purchased the 2003 version in 2009 for my new laptop. New each of my two computers has Office 2003.
However, I needed an application to work with pictures. I tried GIMP and found it to be very useful and inexpensive.
I like the free stuff from http://www.graphviz.org/ — you can give it the relationships and it will do the drawing for you.
Great to see Open Source getting so many thumbs up!
I’ve loved the idea of Linux for years and installed it to “play” with a few times. The big problem I’ve always had is that I rely on 3G for internet (yes, 3G not WiFi 😉 ) and, while it’s been possible to get it working, it was never exactly plug & play. Last week I installed a recent Ubuntu (10.something) and what a change! It really has matured in every conceivable way – including better plug & play support for my 3G dongle than Windows provides. My phone company doesn’t support Linux but it seems Linux supports them!
The only thing stopping me dumping Windoze now is that I’m part way through a Visual Basic course with the OU so I need to use, err, VB (including specifically the Express IDE) and I can’t see MS porting that any time soon 😛
Seriously, if you haven’t tried it yet, get a “Live” Linux CD, boot up, and see what you’re missing!
Ah open source… the best and worst, simultaneously.
Advantages:
lots of hands on a project means details get rapidly fixed
for corporate use, it’s good to KNOW what the code is doing
low purchase price (usually zero)
desperately need a feature? Don’t wait for next year’s update: add it yourself
trying to decode a data format? just read the code
Disadvantages:
Usually, lack of cohesive project and design management. Many open source projects are hopelessly confused and a mish-mash of programmers’ ideas.
It ships when it ships.
QC is based on user feedback which is based on people who use the product. Learning curve for new users is often insurmountably steep.
We use open source at work here whenever possible, by my own directive. The webservers are linux, the newest fileservers are linux using Samba (accessible to windows machines). We’re porting the MSSQL database to MySQL (a significant speed and functionality increase).
I’ve dumped OpenOffice because it’s so nastily inconsistent between apps, still crashes in a lot of areas, and a few other reasons. I built a multi-thousand page document with it, so I can assure you I know where it’s strengths and weaknesses are. Maybe someday it will be “good” instead of just “free”.
I’ve used Dia, but am not a fan. If gimp vanished tomorrow I wouldn’t miss it.
In fact, the takeaway is: purchase price can be zero, but cost of ownership (in a corporate environment) can overwhelm that advantage over time. Often a shockingly brief time.
Something to consider is programmability. Sometimes an actual model, not just a picture, is what you need. I can’t apply the argument to network design, but I have used PowerPoint to build automated process-design and analysis tools that work very well. When you look under the covers, there isn’t much that Visio can do that PowerPoint can’t in this respect, given the VBA language built into MS Office tools. As for other suites and programs, you’ll have to check on the availability of an API or scripting capability yourself. An unexpected benefit of using PowerPoint is that since so many non-technical users are familiar with it, they seem to instinctively find tools built around it less intimidating.
Inkscape for vector graphics and .svg files.
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JB Williamson
December 15, 2010 at 12:24 pm
For SVG, use Inkscape. Its goal is to become the ultimate SVG complaint authoring system. I found that svgs I create with it import to other apps better then anything else I have used.
Reply: Humorous typo. ~ ctm
awesome anthony.
for help finding open source alternatives to common programs go here:
http://www.osalt.com/
http://sourceforge.net/
firefox and openoffice own the corporate alternatives. with openoffice you can open new ms document formats that even other ms products won’t open, and import and export pdf as well.
for the adventurous pclinuxos is a pretty idiot proof linux distribution. i spent hours getting windows on a machine, then loaded PCLOS in about 20 minutes…all the drivers and such loaded right in on install. so it in fact may be easier to use than windows!
http://www.pclinuxos.com/
At least he wasn’t asking for 4G connectivity:
http://obamapacman.com/2010/12/verizon-4g-network-lie/
http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobilize/the-4g-lie-gets-worse-165
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-4g-lie-2010-11-05
Welcome to the dark side A! We’ll make a sysadmin out of you yet 🙂
For a meteorologist you are very tech savvy I must say. Kudos.
Thanks for the hot tip, Anthony. For those who are not aware, you can also get great open source tools for just about everything these days — gimp for image manipulation and Kompozer for NvU for html editing, not to mention, of course Open Office, which does just about everything which Microsoft Office does, for free — and sometimes more and better.
Support Open Source and it will support you. Help us all get off the Microsoft junkie routine. If you want to get really rad, try Ubuntu for your operating system.
Great! Like you I was on the brink of buying Visio, and now you just saved me 319 EUR. 🙂
I have found the http://www.osalt.com website immensely useful for finding open-source alternatives to commercial software packages.
I have used Dia off and on for something like 10 years, I believe.
A much better program for flowcharts is Diagram Designer
http://logicnet.dk/meesoft/DiagramDesigner/
Also take a look at CADE
http://www.404techsupport.com/2008/09/26/cade-another-visio-alternative/
And let’s not forget Network Notepad
http://www.networknotepad.com/
Give yED a look as well
http://www.yworks.com/en/products_yed_about.html
and while we’re about it ArgoUML
http://argouml.tigris.org/
jfig (http://tams-www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/applets/jfig/) is a Java version of xfig; it runs on any platform that supports Java. It’s also available as a webstart app: http://tams-www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/applets/jfig/webstart.html.
Thanks Anthony: it works on the Mac too and looks easier then some of the other diagram programs I am using.
There’s plenty free, as in free beer, scientific applications that can be had.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuScience
Just go virtual and then try what ever application. Sun Microsystems virtualbox is free for personal use and Ubuntu is is free beer.
This won’t be news to most of your commenters here, but just in case you’re new to free software, here’s a place to start:
http://directory.fsf.org/
Many thanks.
Coincidentally I have been looking for a simple tool do create a few UML diagrams. The only free one required Java, which I always find a pain in my Windows world. This one seems not to require this extra layer.
Saved me a $100 I was going to pay for another tool. If this works, some of that will go to your tip jar, and some to the writers of the software!
OpenOffice /LibreOffice Draw has all the flowchart and connection lines ready to use. (Fedora Linux user)
But good tip still the same AW,
Any guess on whether Michael Mann would contemplate shoplifting?
Quite a fun comment thread. I’ve been an Office Suite user for many, many years and I use ALL of it…word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, database, etc. I’ve used OpenOffice for several years as well. OO will do all the basics but it I find it just a bit clumsy. A few years ago I had to perform a frequency distribution with a dataset of about 10,000 numbers. The built in help and even online help for Microsoft Excel was woefully inadequate but eventually I figured it out (it’s the little things they DON’T tell you that screw you up). I loaded the very same data into OpenOffice and had no problem replicating my work. It’s the “little” differences between Office and OO that are so incredibly annoying. The built-in PDF converter in OO may tip the balance.
I may just have to build a Linux box just to play with. I have built the last 9 computers I have owned and used to enjoy doing so. Now I have something of an aversion to it. I probably just got burnt out. I can’t possibly keep up with the rapidly changing, evolving world of PCs along with what I do for a living. But there were several great comments here. A lot of stuff for me to experiment with. Thanks to everyone.