Comments on: Picking the Right UML Modeling Tool

By: Keith McMillan

Keith McMillan — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 02:30:16 +0000

Thank you Yanic for your comments. I agree that ease of use is a nice feature to have in a UML tool, and I will be sure to check out yours. As I’m sure you appreciate, there’s been a proliferation of these tools in the last few years, and I only had time to cover the big boys.

By: What To Fix

What To Fix — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 02:00:16 +0000

Welcome new Blog Friend!

The great thing about working with a large client is the chance to meet a lot of other practitioners. Since I’ve started with my last major client, I’ve met several people who seek to help teams run faster using Agile…

By: Yanic

Yanic — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 18:55:27 +0000

Hi Keith,

Nice overview of general purpose UML-tools.

Since you mentioned it, hitting a nail with a screwdriver is indeed the wrong approach, so how about considering a specialized tool for your UML?

I found that general purpose UML-tools have pretty low usability is some regards, especially when all you want to do is draw or update a couple of sequence diagrams – quickly.

That’s why I rolled my own : Trace Modeler is a smart and easy to use editor for UML sequence diagrams.

It only does sequence diagrams, but it does them really well I think.

It’s main benefit is that it combines drag & drop with full automatic layout. This means that you are free to focus on the content, while the tool takes care of all the rest.

It has some other neat features too, like control flow highlighting, smart comment connectors, call inlining, easy scrolling and zooming, a special mode for presentations, etc.

If you’re in a hurry, here’s a 30 sec demo of Trace Modeler in action.

Let me know what you think of it, I’m always happy to get feedback!

Best regards,
Yanic