Pretty network diagrams and flow charts with Open Source software.
I had been using Dia for all my charts and diagrams, and it does a very good job. The only downside is that it doesn't produce very pretty charts of the like of Omnigraffle.
However, inspired by this article, I'm starting to use a new solution, Inkscape, that fulfills my criteria that works on Linux, Mac and Windows.
| Dia | Omnigraffle | Inkscape | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Can create pretty pictures | No | Yes | Yes |
| Cross Platform (Linux, Mac, Windows) | Yes | No - Mac only | Yes |
| Open Source | Yes | No | Yes |
| Open file format (to work with version control) | No - Binary | No - Binary | Yes - SVG |
| Export to PNG | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Now you may argue that Inkscape is not a diagraming tool but a generic drawing tool. This is true, but with the addition of a few templates of pre-drawn items it become a very good diagramming tool.
I've created a few simple flow chart elements which I use and also scoured the net for some SVG icons for network based diagrams which were sourced from Gnome (via Ubuntu) and from Quantum Bits.
Templates Previews
Download
Download the svg templates (right click - Save As):Give it a try - it's very easy.
- Select the "Draw Bezier curves and straight lines" tool (shift-F6)
- Line starting point: click mouse left
- Line ending point: double-click mouse left
- Open "Fill and Stroke" dialog (shift-ctrl-F)
- Click "Stroke style" tab
- Arrow style: "End Markers" and scroll down pull-down menu for quite a length till you find "Arrow2Mend". You now have a colored line with a black arrow head.
Thanks very much for taking the time to post this! I've just been through a similar quest, having been driven to insanity by frequent Visio use. (How a piece of software can be so barbarically unituitive is still beyond me).
I think Inkscape is the solution - Enterprise Architect is excellent as a software engineering tool, but for pretty client-facing diagrams it doesn't quite cut it. (EA is also not free, though its license is reasonably cheap for the features it offers, I think.
Cheers,
-Tim