

Ask HN: Best software for schematics/diagrams? - nvn1

I'd like something that can produce pretty diagrams out of the box for software, business processes, etc for showing to clients. Anything free would be a bonus too. Any advice?
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bjm
None of these earns the bonus for being free, but perhaps you could take a
closer look:

* Microsoft Visio - I've never actually used it, but it used to be the de facto standard back in the old days when nobody ever got fired for buying anything Microsoft :)

* <http://lovelycharts.com/> \- this is an online diagramming app built on the Flash platform (I can't help mentioning that :), very cool stuff. However, I've never used it for anything but the simplest diagrams, I suggest that you try it yourself.

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CyberFonic
Based upon my experience: Open Office Draw is quite good. For greater power,
you could consider InkScape. Dia is also good if you have the time to tweak to
your requirements. I end up using OO-Draw for 80% of my diagrams and it
interfaces with OO-Impress.

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bavcyc
GIMP will work but might require more effort than you want to spend.

Will anything in Open Office do this?

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zizou
omnigraffle comes to my mind, you can use pencil maybe, try balsamiq and the
like.... mindmaps is another thats very generic in nature and has got gr8
utility.

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nvn1
Thanks, I'll check these out.

