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Draw.io: Online Diagramming Website

1091 points by dan1234 7y ago

tempest-tost 7y ago
I've used it as a lightweight alternative to LucidChart and was impressed. Pretty cool to be able to just download it as html, in addition to as an image.
jackdh 7y ago
Huge fan of Draw.io, with Visio still missing Mac support it's been great for cross machine architecture design.
- brightball 7y ago
  OmniGraffle on the Mac is great. It's the only thing I've missed since switching to Linux.
- high_derivative 7y ago
  Exactly how I got into it. At university, realized that despite buying some office pack with a laptop, there was no visio contained. Began with draw.io and never looked back.
tralarpa 7y ago
I used the javascript and java versions of mxGraph (jgraphx) in several projects. Very powerful libraries with many features and many possibilities for customization. Documentation sucked, though.
dep_b 7y ago
Used it a lot. It's not perfect, but good enough.
TheHypnotist 7y ago
I use Draw.io for work all the time. It's far less clunky than Vizio. My one minor issue is, due to security restrictions, I can't really save a whole lot outside of my local and it doesn't give me the option to choose my preferred directory.
- davidjgraph 7y ago
  Use desktop version https://github.com/jgraph/drawio-desktop/releases https://github.com/jgraph/drawio-desktop/releases
  - TheHypnotist 7y ago
    I had no idea this existed. Thank you!
  - xiwenc 7y ago
    Thanks for pointing this out! Now I can draw.io offline :)
    - davidjgraph 7y ago
      Doesn't a footer pop up when you save locally on the online version telling you about the desktop version?
      - irq-1 7y ago
        I saw "download" and clicked it thinking to download the diagram and closed the webpage without looking at it. Maybe it's me, or it might need UX work. Great website. (and I will be downloading the desktop client :)
      - TheHypnotist 7y ago
        I never noticed it until now. But I haven't had to use the app in a few weeks.
  - philliphaydon 7y ago
    Omg!!!! Thank you!!!
  - chrisjc 7y ago
    Awesome! Just installed via brew brew cask install drawio
nefitty 7y ago
Evernote, Google Sheets, VS Code, Draw.io. These are the apps that shape my work and life the most.
justplay 7y ago
I use it everytime i have to draw any flowchart. It is not good as lucidchart but as it is free so i use it.
- FunnyLookinHat 7y ago
  Same here! Ironically I think it's better than lucidchart because it's simpler and let's me just get my ideas down more easily.
asicsp 7y ago
probably not intended for this use case, but I use draw.io to create cover image for my ebooks
jackschultz 7y ago
Well no kidding. I used this a couple days ago with a coworker where we had to make a quick diagram and didn't know what to use. I searched google, this came up quickly, was able to get it on drive so he and I could each do work on it, and then able to export to pdf pretty seamlessly. Figure if it shows up on HN a few days after discovering and using it myself, I should write about the positive experience.
Coxa 7y ago
My dissertation would be half as pretty without it.
bigwheeler 7y ago
Without a doubt one of the most useful 100% free software tools a dev has at their disposal.
- SlowRobotAhead 7y ago
  Draw.io and Web Sequence Diagrams really improved my code documentation because I actually want to use them. Pretty rare for software imo.
  - reaperducer 7y ago
    WSD seems neat. I'd like to explore it further, but I'm not interested in signing up for yet another account. For me, the biggest advantage Draw.io has over many of its competitors is that it can be self-hosted.
    - SlowRobotAhead 7y ago
      Last I checked you can use WSD without account just can’t save, but iirc it records to the url so you can still kinda work it. Also; could be wrong but I thought it allowed federated logins. It’s worth it. The syntax is stupid easy and you really would have to try to mess it up. Fast to make workflow diagrams that other people can edit.
    - sverweij 7y ago
      If you like the text based ness of WSD, you might like https://mscgen.js.org https://mscgen.js.org - which is 100% open source & client side only.
- ubercow13 7y ago
  Personally I’m fond of gcc
sylens 7y ago
Used this tool for a while until my org finally decided to pay for Lucidchart
LeonM 7y ago
Creating a tool like this requires significant resources, is there a business model behind it?
- davidjgraph 7y ago
  The core team has a 15 year contract with an Atlassian consulting firm to produce and support the Confluence and Jira integrations with a revenue share model. Last financial year that earned us $3.1M, up from $1.8M the year before.
  - carty76ers 7y ago
    That’s great news! Draw.io is fantastic and I keep discovering new things about it. So thank you for making it easy to use with an optional rich set of options!
  - HillRat 7y ago
    Glad to hear that. Had an enterprise contract with you guys for years — mxGraph was an important part of our front-end stack.
    - davidjgraph 7y ago
      Good choice :). We do still evolve the project as OS, https://github.com/jgraph/mxgraph https://github.com/jgraph/mxgraph, since it's the base of our stack.
  - MayeulC 7y ago
    Thank you for keeping this open! It really is a gift to anyone who wants full control of their tools. I sometimes use it together with inkscape, tikz and graphviz. I quite like the draw.io nextcloud app as well, though I guess it could also be a storage provider on the website for better integration :)
  - fsloth 7y ago
    That's really great! It's really hard to find examples of business models built around free software that brings in straighforward revenue. Good luck!
Phillips126 7y ago
We recently had management ask for some diagrams of our applications infrastructure. Draw.io made that so easy with their pre-made components and export to PDF. Will definitely use it again.
- SlowRobotAhead 7y ago
  The pre-made components and user lib is huge. I was at Amazon working on something - their own engineer was using draw.io to quickly grab AWS icons for Lambda, IoT core, API Gateway etc and place them into his flow chart. He said they had a library somewhere of AWS artwork, but it was easier to just use draw.io’s art lib.
newprint 7y ago
Ok, just a note to everyone ! It is online service and your diagrams are stored in the "cloud" and you have zero control over it. Please, do not post your company's secret in form of diagrams. Recently, we caught one of the contractors using Draw.io to make diagrams of brand new systems that we are designing(we are fortune 40 company). System is expensive, very sensitive.
- davidjgraph 7y ago
  And where did the user store the data? Addtionally, you can deploy a local version via docker, or use the stand-alone desktop version, https://github.com/jgraph/drawio https://github.com/jgraph/drawio has the links.
- criley2 7y ago
  On the flip side, we use Google G Suite so the majority of our documents are stored with Google, and draw.io's cloud support seamlessly works with our G Suite drives. Our G Suite administrators have plenty of control over the G Suite Google Drives that would be used with draw.io and our Google accounts. The only bits of our data we don't trust with Google are PHI
  - davidjgraph 7y ago
    This is where my reply was going. Authenication to Google Drive is client-side and direct to google.com. There is no draw.io server anywhere that can access your Google Drive.
- grepfru_it 7y ago
  that is if you save it, it is my understanding the actual objects drawn and linked on screen are entirely stored in the DOM of your browser until you click "save" and send it to a cloud location. "saving" to your browser or device just creates a "download" of static blob data in a variable i have confirmed this with a local instance of draw.io
- bearcherian 7y ago
  "cloud" != "public" If you save it in your Google Drive, you can control who has access. Even better if it's your organization's GSuite
SkyTreasure 7y ago
Just now my colleague was showing the flow chart in draw.io. I was impressed by it and bookmarked the site and now it's trending here
- SlowRobotAhead 7y ago
  The site is good. It’s one of the only online drawing programs that doesn’t IMMEDIATELY get bogged down. But... the offline tool is superior for speed and UX imo. That’s where it really shines.
flanbiscuit 7y ago
> draw.io is a client-side, static web application. There is no user authenication or data storage concept in this repo. The online version stores data in mainstream cloud storage options, currently Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, Github, Gitlab or Trello. I love this about Draw.io. This is how I want to build my applications. I don't want to deal with storing any user data and rather let them handle it how they see fit.
- insomniacity 7y ago
  You may be interested in https://remotestorage.io/ https://remotestorage.io/.
  - monk_e_boy 7y ago
    Oh wow, thanks for that link. I've been wanting my users to be able to save data and share links for ages.
- hanniabu 7y ago
  > mainstream cloud storage options, currently Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, Github, Gitlab or Trello. Anybody know of a library of service (preferably open source) that offers an easy API to interact with all these in such a way?
  - sbr464 7y ago
    BrowserFS has a few different APIs integrated. Not the lightest library though. https://github.com/jvilk/BrowserFS/blob/master/README.md https://github.com/jvilk/BrowserFS/blob/master/README.md
  - breck 7y ago
    I would also love such a library. I currently follow the same pattern of making web apps that only use local storage so I don’t have access to user data, but would like to allow users to easily use their existing cloud services for persistence.
packetlost 7y ago
draw.io got me through all of college. Easily one of my favorite applications ever. Suck it visio!
voiper1 7y ago
For web-design things, you can turn on Bootstrap in the "More shapes" on bottom left.
MattConfluence 7y ago
An incredibly useful tool. I started using it in university for coursework, I used it to create figures for my master's thesis, and now I use it in my industry job. I would give it the highest statement of praise you can give any software: it just works.
kelseyr 7y ago
I really like that you can export as PNGs and embed the diagram information inside. Being able send around PNGs that everyone can view, but can still be edited with draw.io makes sharing and updating much simpler.
- nkrisc 7y ago
  This is really interesting, is this (or similar to) steganography? Poked around the repo but haven't yet found where this is implemented (on either end). From a user perspective that sounds like a super useful feature, though perhaps unexpected unless you were directly informed of it.
  - jgalentine007 7y ago
    I'm guessing you can just append arbitrary data to a png file since it has eof markers in its file structure.
    - Liquid_Fire 7y ago
      PNG is structured in "chunks" of data of different types, and you can add your own tool-specific types. IIRC there is even a way to indicate what other tools should do with a chunk type they don't recognise (keep it untouched or throw it away).
      - jgalentine007 7y ago
        I exported a draw.io png and they do encode the diagram information with private data chunks.
  - alderg 7y ago
    The code for writing is here: https://github.com/jgraph/drawio/blob/master/src/main/webapp/js/diagramly/EditorUi.js#L8702 https://github.com/jgraph/drawio/blob/master/src/main/webapp... Reading is here: https://github.com/jgraph/drawio/blob/master/src/main/webapp/js/diagramly/Editor.js#L568 https://github.com/jgraph/drawio/blob/master/src/main/webapp... We're using the tEXt chunk.
sizzzzlerz 7y ago
Just 10 minutes of playing around with it and I'm hooked. What a great tool. Much easier that having to deal with Visio. And, it's cross-platform!
mcntall 7y ago
For those without MS Visio or other paid alternatives, Draw.io can pretty much get you covered at zero cost, with the option of doing it client-side, online, etc. Not sure if the founders have the option, but I would encourage folks to donate a couple of bucks to encourage high quality free software such as this.
- SlowRobotAhead 7y ago
  I’ve found the draw.io experience to be so far above Visio that I just can’t imagine going back. I put it up there with VLC and Handbrake as quality apps. Even as a common dirty pirate; I donated to all of those.
  - mikepurvis 7y ago
    I'm a fan as well. My org ended up dropping our draw.io intergration in Confluence in favour of Lucidchart; I'm still not really sure why as it appears to be worse in functionality as well as slower and more tied to a cloud backend.
    - jacobobryant 7y ago
      Lucid probably spends more on sales ;) (former employee)
    - thayne 7y ago
      In what ways is Lucidchart worse in functionality? (disclaimer: employee of Lucid Software)
      - tverbeure 7y ago
        At some point, I actually paid for LucidChart for a year. Last time I used it, before switching to draw.io, it became slow to the point of being unusable once you had a few pages in a document. And I was making an animation where each page showed the next step in a process, so there were a lot of pages. This was a couple of years ago, so things may have changed since. My diagrams may have a bunch of elements on them, but I don't think I use any advanced features (irrespective of whether it's Visio, LucidChart or draw.io). From that perspective, these isn't much difference between any of these programs, so there's just no reason to use a paid product.
Phait 7y ago
This has been my go-to software for making diagrams since I was an undergrad. Absolutely stunning. I recommend their stand-alone version for offline editing as well.
criley2 7y ago
I used to use Draw.io a lot more than I do now, and it is a wonderful tool, the only reason I use it less now is because I've been using: PlantUML (http://plantuml.com/ http://plantuml.com/) with demo at (http://planttext.com http://planttext.com). Creating most diagrams through a simple markup language that can be version controlled and rendered on demand has been really nice for me, and sometimes I would spent SO MUCH TIME in draw.io making sure my arrows were even, making the pixels line up, making sure I used the right shape with the right font size, etc, that it was liberating to just succinctly describe my data and have it automatically render. For more complex diagrams or to plan a diagram, I've also gone back to paper. There really is nothing better than a notebook in front of you and a collection of colored pens and stencils.
- SlowRobotAhead 7y ago
  > I would spent SO MUCH TIME in draw.io making sure my arrows were even, making the pixels line up, making sure I used the right shape with the right font size, etc, I think most of us feel this! I agree PlantUML makes that a lot easier. The thing is, the second you need to make something other than a UML, you’re going to another tool. That said, while draw.io does an excellent job of their connector and arrow system usually getting it close, a UML or some sort of “strict grid mode” would be nice.
- jessedhillon 7y ago
  Is there any way to change the rendering style? Or are you stuck with red and yellow?
  - TuringTest 7y ago
    There's a styling engine[1], but appartently it's still in beta[2] [1] http://plantuml.com/en/skinparam http://plantuml.com/en/skinparam [2] http://plantuml.com/es/style-evolution http://plantuml.com/es/style-evolution
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
- 7y ago
sandGorgon 7y ago
Is it possible to add Monodraw (https://monodraw.helftone.com/ https://monodraw.helftone.com/) style text art to this ? I would pay for something that is browser only and generates really nice text art for diagrams.
- cloverich 7y ago
  Can you elaborate more about "text art"? I just recently purchased monodraw, after seeing it linked from Brandur's blog([1]), but have only done basic diagrams with it. [1]: https://brandur.org/articles https://brandur.org/articles
  - sandGorgon 7y ago
    I meant text diagrams. Not art in the true stylistic sense. Brandur's blog was an inspiration for me as well !
- tvaughan 7y ago
  http://asciiflow.com http://asciiflow.com
- fouc 7y ago
  http://asciiflow.com/ http://asciiflow.com/ maybe?
  - thanatropism 7y ago
    I've tried asciiflow a few times and monodraw seems so appealing in contrast. But: Mac-only.
  - baddate 7y ago
    I very like it, it's simple but powerful!
- peternicky 7y ago
  monodraw is cool until you actually try making anything more than a simple diagram. It becomes tedious to manage all the different elements you create. Also, the developer hasn't updated the application in over a year and doesn't respond to customer messages. If you want ascii-style diagrams there are a few free web apps which work 100% better than monodraw.
pixelbath 7y ago
We use draw.io at work for embedding diagrams into our process wiki which accepts basic HTML. It's great and allows us to update the drawings at any time.
ssddanbrown 7y ago
Draw.io is a great application. I integrated it into BookStack (Documentation System) as a way for people to create and manage drawings in the platform. Was much easier than I expected and David (davidjgraph) was very supportive.
- davidjgraph 7y ago
  Productivity tools often do integrate draw.io, but often are just embedding. Bookstack is one of the best integrations, the create and edit flow is exactly how we intended it.
robodale 7y ago
Been using Draw.io since early 2016. Love it. Love the integration with Google Drive, as I live within that platform.
a_c 7y ago
A tremendous useful feature, well to me at least, is to let user specify graph data structure with associating data and export the data after drawing is done
goffi 7y ago
It's a really nice software, great tool, thanks to people behind it! I'm wondering about the licenses of icons, clipart or other shapes that are available for the diagrams. There are a lot of shapes, are they all usable without counterpart in any document (private or public)? If not, is there a way to check the licenses of the shapes we want to use?
- davidjgraph 7y ago
  For all the icons built into the app we've performed due diligence that the source allows them to go into the app and allows publishing in any format, or we built them internally from scratch. And yes, we need to publish the audit trail for that, it's on my todo.
wuliwong 7y ago
I couldn't tell, why was this trending today? I didn't realize this was open source, I too am a draw.io user. :)
Gravityloss 7y ago
I've tried drawing diagrams with these tools and it seems so much harder for quick drafting than just using pen and paper and also a lot of work to get anything even remotely good looking (like aligning things or making boxes of the same size, ie performing mass operations). I would like to use a tool where I first describe the relations in text/code and the layouting and formatting is done separately, and formatting should be hierarchical.
- gorn 7y ago
  You can try mermaid https://mermaidjs.github.io/ https://mermaidjs.github.io/ This was the only tool I could find that would work with version control.
  - andybak 7y ago
    That's nice. I can fit most of the syntax in my head (more than be said for Markdown...)
- codeulike 7y ago
  select multiple objects, go to align tab, select the alignment you want
- gatherhunterer 7y ago
  > it seems so much harder for quick drafting than just using pen and paper I don’t consider that a reasonable criticism. Of course using pen and paper is quicker and easier. The advantage of any digital format is that it is distributable, universally readable and persistent.
  - adriand 7y ago
    Not to mention changeable! The ability to erase items, or to rearrange your diagram (and to have the lines between items automatically reflow) is another key reason to use a digital format.
  - dta5003 7y ago
ouid 7y ago
When trying to create a new drawing, if I select the "not in my root folder" option, it a) tries to log me in despite my already being logged in, and b) fails anyway.
- beernutz 7y ago
  I see the same issue. I can save to root folder only in google drive. Also i am unable to open a file in google drive as it has the same "log in" dialog. https://www.screencast.com/t/g4wnSWLDtOLk https://www.screencast.com/t/g4wnSWLDtOLk Clicking the "Sign in" button closes the dialog and reopens it. It does this cycle twice, then shows this error pane: https://www.screencast.com/t/qmUhxSuU2T https://www.screencast.com/t/qmUhxSuU2T
  - ouid 7y ago
    exactly that.
  - davidjgraph 7y ago
    Pleas file an issue at https://github.com/jgraph/drawio/issues https://github.com/jgraph/drawio/issues. Can't recreate currently, but need more details.
freeman478 7y ago
It is a great tool ! Only issue with it is that the source code (of the front-end) is quite hairy to understand and modify. I tried to add support for Github Enterprise (https://github.com/jgraph/drawio/issues/473 https://github.com/jgraph/drawio/issues/473) and was quite lost.
- davidjgraph 7y ago
  It's a reasonable critism. The base of the stack is a proper dev library. The top part evolved from an example to that library and didn't get the same refactoring love to make it accessible to other devs. Main problem from our end on your issue is we don't have access to a Github enterprise instance to test anything.
dd36 7y ago
I used draw.io for a wiring diagram for my solar permit, as well as for a site plan for a fence permit. Works great! Love it!
tombert 7y ago
I love draw.io. I work for one of the big brand-name tech companies, and still routinely use draw.io for diagrams whenever I have to give presentations (high-level, system architecture things mostly). It's easy to get something that looks relatively pretty made relatively quickly, and unlike something like Omnigraffle, it works on Linux.
kylecazar 7y ago
Wow, this is a really slick experience on mobile. I've tried most tools in this class and this might be the most responsive & snappy. Maybe because everything is client-side.
krsdcbl 7y ago
I've been using draw.io massively over the last years everywhere from concepting & mindmapping up to integrating it directly into website editors where needed - huge kudos to the authors, such a useful and well designed tool.
azemzaj 7y ago
I am always interested in building graphical tools like this in the web client side, does anyone have experience in this area and let me know what technologies/frameworks that are used?
tcrow 7y ago
Been using draw.io for years and have turned many people at my work on to it. Simple, elegant, and works a treat! Thank you so much for sharing this work and for helping make the work day run a little smoother :)
jchw 7y ago
I had no idea draw.io was open source, is this new? Good stuff either way. I always thought it was amazing that it was free.
yoran 7y ago
Funny, I just used it this afternoon to create an diagram of our technical infrastructure. Initially I was looking for the "Sign up" button so that I could save my diagram in the cloud but then I realized that it's all run in the browser. Love it!
protomyth 7y ago
Does it allow boolean operations on shapes? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boolean_operations_on_polygons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boolean_operations_on_polygons
boyband6666 7y ago
The draft of my (part time) PhD thesis uses draw.io to present a flowchart of the findings - hopefully it makes the final cut next year. Fascinating to hear the other uses, and thankyou for a wonderful and elegant tool!
KhoomeiK 7y ago
I use this all the time for basic schematics, especially hackathon projects to explain app architecture to newcomers. Never new it was open source!
mips_avatar 7y ago
Draw.io is a phenomenal program, easier to use for new users than visio. I had everyone use it in my college's robotics team to draw system diagrams.
blakeburch 7y ago
If you're looking for a fantastic diagramming site, I would recommend checking out [Whimsical](https://whimsical.com/ https://whimsical.com/). I've tried out a lot of solutions over the years (draw.io, LucidChart,Gliffy, etc.). Whimsical is the first that really nails the UI/UX. You spend less time fighting the system to make something that looks great and more time just building out your diagram. I'm not associated with the product at all, but it definitely needs more love in the space.
- fishtacos 7y ago
  Draw.io has the advantage of being open source and able to be self-hosted. I wouldn't trade that flexibility and security for anything.
- atentaten 7y ago
  Thanks for sharing whimsical. I just played around with this for a few minutes and I found it enjoyable.
- iDemonix 7y ago
  Whilst it looks good, I love that I don't even need an account to use draw.io. We use it at work and integrates with Confluence perfectly.
- Paul_O_Meany_Jr 7y ago
  If we're delving into paid services, I find Miro to be another incredible product in this space that absolutely nails the UX. My whole design team collaborates on Miro now and we love it. https://miro.com/ https://miro.com/
  - AlanYx 7y ago
    Another lesser-known diagramming tool that shares elements of Whimsical and Miro is Plectica: https://www.plectica.com/ https://www.plectica.com/
    - Aeolun 7y ago
dang 7y ago
Related from 2017: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15029989 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15029989 2013: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6464495 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6464495 2012: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4947820 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4947820
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
allenu 7y ago
I use draw.io all the time. It's incredibly simple and that's what makes it work so well. I can whip up a good architecture diagram in a few minutes using it.
j1elo 7y ago
After looking for good tools in this space, to create documentation diagrams, I stayed with Draw.io and yEd[1]. The latter has a pretty cool feature that re-arranges all objects according to some predefined layout. Quite neat. [1]: https://www.yworks.com/products/yed https://www.yworks.com/products/yed
ericrich 7y ago
I've worked with draw.io (mxGraph) quite a bit over the years. Love it!
papln 7y ago
I tried to save a Diagram to Google Drive, not in root folder: "Error Maximum call stack size exceeded"
CivBase 7y ago
Anyone have recommendations for a simple text-based flowchart specification format? Something that a human can read and easily understand in plaintext, but can also be rendered as a graphic? The current solutions we have at my work are extremely difficult to use with VCS. I've looked at Mermaid [0], but it is pretty limiting in its feature set. I typically use draw.io/mxGraph [1] when I'm making diagrams and flowcharts, but the XML-based file format is pretty overwhelming for humans to read. [0] https://mermaidjs.github.io https://mermaidjs.github.io [1] https://github.com/jgraph/mxgraph https://github.com/jgraph/mxgraph
- gclawes 7y ago
  These were posted on HN a few days ago: https://avdi.codes/tools-for-turning-descriptions-into-diagrams/ https://avdi.codes/tools-for-turning-descriptions-into-diagr...
- steve-s 7y ago
  GraphViz?
  - graphviz 7y ago
    What?
- pjc50 7y ago
  There's always the ancient "Pic" language by Brian Kernighan, e.g.: http://mtorrest.sitios.ing.uc.cl/downloads/latex/flowchart.pdf http://mtorrest.sitios.ing.uc.cl/downloads/latex/flowchart.p...
- justasitsounds 7y ago
  plantUML[0] may be what you're looking for, specifically the activity diagrams[1].I've been using it extensively for sequence diagrams (has more features than websequencediagrams.com). Most recently I've been using this C4 architecture diagrams extension[2]. There's a VSCode preview extension[3] and a docker image[4] for running a plantUML server locally that lets me create and share version controlled diagrams with my colleagues easily. I especially like that there's an ascii renderer for the sequence diagrams that makes embedding them in Readme's very easy [0] http://plantuml.com/ http://plantuml.com/ [1] http://plantuml.com/activity-diagram-beta http://plantuml.com/activity-diagram-beta [2] https://github.com/RicardoNiepel/C4-PlantUML https://github.com/RicardoNiepel/C4-PlantUML [3] https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=jebbs.plantuml https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=jebbs.pl... [4] https://hub.docker.com/r/plantuml/plantuml-server/ https://hub.docker.com/r/plantuml/plantuml-server/
somishere 7y ago
I used draw.io a bit a few years ago, before running out of reasons between jobs. Tried out a few paid alternatives recently before re-stumbling across draw - connected it to my personal gdrive and uncovered a whole bunch of old (very useful) diagramming - forget slick UIs, draw.io a remarkable balance of simplicity, flexibility and function. And free! Someone mentioned handbrake and vlc, would definitely agree with the comparison.
darkandbrooding 7y ago
Just adding to the choir. This is a great tool. I prefer using open source software when possible, but I also like to pay for the tools that makes my job easier. The developer is aiming at corporate, volume licensing and I understand how a Patreon account would run counter to their business strategy. I wish there was a 'small dollar donations' channel, though. I like this tool enough to throw them some regular money.
yug_blop 7y ago
I can personally recommend precursor: https://precursorapp.com https://precursorapp.com
rajesh-s 7y ago
Long time draw.io user here. A couple of weeks back [brainio](https://brainio.com/#/ https://brainio.com/#/) was posted on HN. Though it's still in beta, it works really well and I like the concept of going from Markdown to Mindmap and vice-versa. Drawio is also trying to implement this through PlantUML but it's not fully functional yet with only some constrained types on PlantUML support.
jjice 7y ago
I was just using this today for an ER diagram for class with a group. Working on a single document as a group works well, which has come up quite a few times in my time at university. Draw.io offers everything I need (which isn't very much) without being overly complicated.
pknerd 7y ago
Didn't know it was open source. I used it for various diagrams for my blog posts. Thanks!
aguilar 7y ago
Also a good choice for fast easy prototyping and wireframing.

1091 points by dan1234 7y ago

I've used it as a lightweight alternative to LucidChart and was impressed. Pretty cool to be able to just download it as html, in addition to as an image.

jackdh 7y ago

Huge fan of Draw.io, with Visio still missing Mac support it's been great for cross machine architecture design.

brightball 7y ago
OmniGraffle on the Mac is great. It's the only thing I've missed since switching to Linux.
high_derivative 7y ago
Exactly how I got into it. At university, realized that despite buying some office pack with a laptop, there was no visio contained. Began with draw.io and never looked back.

tralarpa 7y ago

I used the javascript and java versions of mxGraph (jgraphx) in several projects. Very powerful libraries with many features and many possibilities for customization. Documentation sucked, though.

dep_b 7y ago

Used it a lot. It's not perfect, but good enough.

TheHypnotist 7y ago

I use Draw.io for work all the time. It's far less clunky than Vizio. My one minor issue is, due to security restrictions, I can't really save a whole lot outside of my local and it doesn't give me the option to choose my preferred directory.

davidjgraph 7y ago
Use desktop version https://github.com/jgraph/drawio-desktop/releases https://github.com/jgraph/drawio-desktop/releases
- TheHypnotist 7y ago
  I had no idea this existed. Thank you!
- xiwenc 7y ago
  Thanks for pointing this out! Now I can draw.io offline :)
  - davidjgraph 7y ago
    Doesn't a footer pop up when you save locally on the online version telling you about the desktop version?
    - irq-1 7y ago
      I saw "download" and clicked it thinking to download the diagram and closed the webpage without looking at it. Maybe it's me, or it might need UX work. Great website. (and I will be downloading the desktop client :)
    - TheHypnotist 7y ago
      I never noticed it until now. But I haven't had to use the app in a few weeks.
- philliphaydon 7y ago
  Omg!!!! Thank you!!!
- chrisjc 7y ago
  Awesome! Just installed via brew brew cask install drawio

nefitty 7y ago

Evernote, Google Sheets, VS Code, Draw.io. These are the apps that shape my work and life the most.

justplay 7y ago

I use it everytime i have to draw any flowchart. It is not good as lucidchart but as it is free so i use it.

FunnyLookinHat 7y ago
Same here! Ironically I think it's better than lucidchart because it's simpler and let's me just get my ideas down more easily.

asicsp 7y ago

probably not intended for this use case, but I use draw.io to create cover image for my ebooks

jackschultz 7y ago

Well no kidding. I used this a couple days ago with a coworker where we had to make a quick diagram and didn't know what to use. I searched google, this came up quickly, was able to get it on drive so he and I could each do work on it, and then able to export to pdf pretty seamlessly. Figure if it shows up on HN a few days after discovering and using it myself, I should write about the positive experience.

Coxa 7y ago

My dissertation would be half as pretty without it.

bigwheeler 7y ago

Without a doubt one of the most useful 100% free software tools a dev has at their disposal.

SlowRobotAhead 7y ago
Draw.io and Web Sequence Diagrams really improved my code documentation because I actually want to use them. Pretty rare for software imo.
- reaperducer 7y ago
  WSD seems neat. I'd like to explore it further, but I'm not interested in signing up for yet another account. For me, the biggest advantage Draw.io has over many of its competitors is that it can be self-hosted.
  - SlowRobotAhead 7y ago
    Last I checked you can use WSD without account just can’t save, but iirc it records to the url so you can still kinda work it. Also; could be wrong but I thought it allowed federated logins. It’s worth it. The syntax is stupid easy and you really would have to try to mess it up. Fast to make workflow diagrams that other people can edit.
  - sverweij 7y ago
    If you like the text based ness of WSD, you might like https://mscgen.js.org https://mscgen.js.org - which is 100% open source & client side only.
ubercow13 7y ago
Personally I’m fond of gcc

sylens 7y ago

Used this tool for a while until my org finally decided to pay for Lucidchart

LeonM 7y ago

Creating a tool like this requires significant resources, is there a business model behind it?

davidjgraph 7y ago
The core team has a 15 year contract with an Atlassian consulting firm to produce and support the Confluence and Jira integrations with a revenue share model. Last financial year that earned us $3.1M, up from $1.8M the year before.
- carty76ers 7y ago
  That’s great news! Draw.io is fantastic and I keep discovering new things about it. So thank you for making it easy to use with an optional rich set of options!
- HillRat 7y ago
  Glad to hear that. Had an enterprise contract with you guys for years — mxGraph was an important part of our front-end stack.
  - davidjgraph 7y ago
    Good choice :). We do still evolve the project as OS, https://github.com/jgraph/mxgraph https://github.com/jgraph/mxgraph, since it's the base of our stack.
- MayeulC 7y ago
  Thank you for keeping this open! It really is a gift to anyone who wants full control of their tools. I sometimes use it together with inkscape, tikz and graphviz. I quite like the draw.io nextcloud app as well, though I guess it could also be a storage provider on the website for better integration :)
- fsloth 7y ago
  That's really great! It's really hard to find examples of business models built around free software that brings in straighforward revenue. Good luck!

Phillips126 7y ago

We recently had management ask for some diagrams of our applications infrastructure. Draw.io made that so easy with their pre-made components and export to PDF. Will definitely use it again.

SlowRobotAhead 7y ago
The pre-made components and user lib is huge. I was at Amazon working on something - their own engineer was using draw.io to quickly grab AWS icons for Lambda, IoT core, API Gateway etc and place them into his flow chart. He said they had a library somewhere of AWS artwork, but it was easier to just use draw.io’s art lib.

newprint 7y ago

Ok, just a note to everyone ! It is online service and your diagrams are stored in the "cloud" and you have zero control over it. Please, do not post your company's secret in form of diagrams. Recently, we caught one of the contractors using Draw.io to make diagrams of brand new systems that we are designing(we are fortune 40 company). System is expensive, very sensitive.

davidjgraph 7y ago
And where did the user store the data? Addtionally, you can deploy a local version via docker, or use the stand-alone desktop version, https://github.com/jgraph/drawio https://github.com/jgraph/drawio has the links.
criley2 7y ago
On the flip side, we use Google G Suite so the majority of our documents are stored with Google, and draw.io's cloud support seamlessly works with our G Suite drives. Our G Suite administrators have plenty of control over the G Suite Google Drives that would be used with draw.io and our Google accounts. The only bits of our data we don't trust with Google are PHI
- davidjgraph 7y ago
  This is where my reply was going. Authenication to Google Drive is client-side and direct to google.com. There is no draw.io server anywhere that can access your Google Drive.
grepfru_it 7y ago
that is if you save it, it is my understanding the actual objects drawn and linked on screen are entirely stored in the DOM of your browser until you click "save" and send it to a cloud location. "saving" to your browser or device just creates a "download" of static blob data in a variable i have confirmed this with a local instance of draw.io
bearcherian 7y ago
"cloud" != "public" If you save it in your Google Drive, you can control who has access. Even better if it's your organization's GSuite

SkyTreasure 7y ago

Just now my colleague was showing the flow chart in draw.io. I was impressed by it and bookmarked the site and now it's trending here

SlowRobotAhead 7y ago
The site is good. It’s one of the only online drawing programs that doesn’t IMMEDIATELY get bogged down. But... the offline tool is superior for speed and UX imo. That’s where it really shines.

flanbiscuit 7y ago

> draw.io is a client-side, static web application. There is no user authenication or data storage concept in this repo. The online version stores data in mainstream cloud storage options, currently Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, Github, Gitlab or Trello. I love this about Draw.io. This is how I want to build my applications. I don't want to deal with storing any user data and rather let them handle it how they see fit.

insomniacity 7y ago
You may be interested in https://remotestorage.io/ https://remotestorage.io/.
- monk_e_boy 7y ago
  Oh wow, thanks for that link. I've been wanting my users to be able to save data and share links for ages.
hanniabu 7y ago
> mainstream cloud storage options, currently Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, Github, Gitlab or Trello. Anybody know of a library of service (preferably open source) that offers an easy API to interact with all these in such a way?
- sbr464 7y ago
  BrowserFS has a few different APIs integrated. Not the lightest library though. https://github.com/jvilk/BrowserFS/blob/master/README.md https://github.com/jvilk/BrowserFS/blob/master/README.md
- breck 7y ago
  I would also love such a library. I currently follow the same pattern of making web apps that only use local storage so I don’t have access to user data, but would like to allow users to easily use their existing cloud services for persistence.

packetlost 7y ago

draw.io got me through all of college. Easily one of my favorite applications ever. Suck it visio!

voiper1 7y ago

For web-design things, you can turn on Bootstrap in the "More shapes" on bottom left.

MattConfluence 7y ago

An incredibly useful tool. I started using it in university for coursework, I used it to create figures for my master's thesis, and now I use it in my industry job. I would give it the highest statement of praise you can give any software: it just works.

kelseyr 7y ago

I really like that you can export as PNGs and embed the diagram information inside. Being able send around PNGs that everyone can view, but can still be edited with draw.io makes sharing and updating much simpler.

nkrisc 7y ago
This is really interesting, is this (or similar to) steganography? Poked around the repo but haven't yet found where this is implemented (on either end). From a user perspective that sounds like a super useful feature, though perhaps unexpected unless you were directly informed of it.
- jgalentine007 7y ago
  I'm guessing you can just append arbitrary data to a png file since it has eof markers in its file structure.
  - Liquid_Fire 7y ago
    PNG is structured in "chunks" of data of different types, and you can add your own tool-specific types. IIRC there is even a way to indicate what other tools should do with a chunk type they don't recognise (keep it untouched or throw it away).
    - jgalentine007 7y ago
      I exported a draw.io png and they do encode the diagram information with private data chunks.
- alderg 7y ago
  The code for writing is here: https://github.com/jgraph/drawio/blob/master/src/main/webapp/js/diagramly/EditorUi.js#L8702 https://github.com/jgraph/drawio/blob/master/src/main/webapp... Reading is here: https://github.com/jgraph/drawio/blob/master/src/main/webapp/js/diagramly/Editor.js#L568 https://github.com/jgraph/drawio/blob/master/src/main/webapp... We're using the tEXt chunk.

sizzzzlerz 7y ago

Just 10 minutes of playing around with it and I'm hooked. What a great tool. Much easier that having to deal with Visio. And, it's cross-platform!

mcntall 7y ago

For those without MS Visio or other paid alternatives, Draw.io can pretty much get you covered at zero cost, with the option of doing it client-side, online, etc. Not sure if the founders have the option, but I would encourage folks to donate a couple of bucks to encourage high quality free software such as this.

SlowRobotAhead 7y ago
I’ve found the draw.io experience to be so far above Visio that I just can’t imagine going back. I put it up there with VLC and Handbrake as quality apps. Even as a common dirty pirate; I donated to all of those.
- mikepurvis 7y ago
  I'm a fan as well. My org ended up dropping our draw.io intergration in Confluence in favour of Lucidchart; I'm still not really sure why as it appears to be worse in functionality as well as slower and more tied to a cloud backend.
  - jacobobryant 7y ago
    Lucid probably spends more on sales ;) (former employee)
  - thayne 7y ago
    In what ways is Lucidchart worse in functionality? (disclaimer: employee of Lucid Software)
    - tverbeure 7y ago
      At some point, I actually paid for LucidChart for a year. Last time I used it, before switching to draw.io, it became slow to the point of being unusable once you had a few pages in a document. And I was making an animation where each page showed the next step in a process, so there were a lot of pages. This was a couple of years ago, so things may have changed since. My diagrams may have a bunch of elements on them, but I don't think I use any advanced features (irrespective of whether it's Visio, LucidChart or draw.io). From that perspective, these isn't much difference between any of these programs, so there's just no reason to use a paid product.

Phait 7y ago

This has been my go-to software for making diagrams since I was an undergrad. Absolutely stunning. I recommend their stand-alone version for offline editing as well.

criley2 7y ago

I used to use Draw.io a lot more than I do now, and it is a wonderful tool, the only reason I use it less now is because I've been using: PlantUML (http://plantuml.com/ http://plantuml.com/) with demo at (http://planttext.com http://planttext.com). Creating most diagrams through a simple markup language that can be version controlled and rendered on demand has been really nice for me, and sometimes I would spent SO MUCH TIME in draw.io making sure my arrows were even, making the pixels line up, making sure I used the right shape with the right font size, etc, that it was liberating to just succinctly describe my data and have it automatically render. For more complex diagrams or to plan a diagram, I've also gone back to paper. There really is nothing better than a notebook in front of you and a collection of colored pens and stencils.

SlowRobotAhead 7y ago
> I would spent SO MUCH TIME in draw.io making sure my arrows were even, making the pixels line up, making sure I used the right shape with the right font size, etc, I think most of us feel this! I agree PlantUML makes that a lot easier. The thing is, the second you need to make something other than a UML, you’re going to another tool. That said, while draw.io does an excellent job of their connector and arrow system usually getting it close, a UML or some sort of “strict grid mode” would be nice.
jessedhillon 7y ago
Is there any way to change the rendering style? Or are you stuck with red and yellow?
- TuringTest 7y ago
  There's a styling engine[1], but appartently it's still in beta[2] [1] http://plantuml.com/en/skinparam http://plantuml.com/en/skinparam [2] http://plantuml.com/es/style-evolution http://plantuml.com/es/style-evolution
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
7y ago

sandGorgon 7y ago

Is it possible to add Monodraw (https://monodraw.helftone.com/ https://monodraw.helftone.com/) style text art to this ? I would pay for something that is browser only and generates really nice text art for diagrams.

cloverich 7y ago
Can you elaborate more about "text art"? I just recently purchased monodraw, after seeing it linked from Brandur's blog([1]), but have only done basic diagrams with it. [1]: https://brandur.org/articles https://brandur.org/articles
- sandGorgon 7y ago
  I meant text diagrams. Not art in the true stylistic sense. Brandur's blog was an inspiration for me as well !
tvaughan 7y ago
http://asciiflow.com http://asciiflow.com
fouc 7y ago
http://asciiflow.com/ http://asciiflow.com/ maybe?
- thanatropism 7y ago
  I've tried asciiflow a few times and monodraw seems so appealing in contrast. But: Mac-only.
- baddate 7y ago
  I very like it, it's simple but powerful!
peternicky 7y ago
monodraw is cool until you actually try making anything more than a simple diagram. It becomes tedious to manage all the different elements you create. Also, the developer hasn't updated the application in over a year and doesn't respond to customer messages. If you want ascii-style diagrams there are a few free web apps which work 100% better than monodraw.

pixelbath 7y ago

We use draw.io at work for embedding diagrams into our process wiki which accepts basic HTML. It's great and allows us to update the drawings at any time.

ssddanbrown 7y ago

Draw.io is a great application. I integrated it into BookStack (Documentation System) as a way for people to create and manage drawings in the platform. Was much easier than I expected and David (davidjgraph) was very supportive.

davidjgraph 7y ago
Productivity tools often do integrate draw.io, but often are just embedding. Bookstack is one of the best integrations, the create and edit flow is exactly how we intended it.

robodale 7y ago

Been using Draw.io since early 2016. Love it. Love the integration with Google Drive, as I live within that platform.

a_c 7y ago

A tremendous useful feature, well to me at least, is to let user specify graph data structure with associating data and export the data after drawing is done

goffi 7y ago

It's a really nice software, great tool, thanks to people behind it! I'm wondering about the licenses of icons, clipart or other shapes that are available for the diagrams. There are a lot of shapes, are they all usable without counterpart in any document (private or public)? If not, is there a way to check the licenses of the shapes we want to use?

davidjgraph 7y ago
For all the icons built into the app we've performed due diligence that the source allows them to go into the app and allows publishing in any format, or we built them internally from scratch. And yes, we need to publish the audit trail for that, it's on my todo.

wuliwong 7y ago

I couldn't tell, why was this trending today? I didn't realize this was open source, I too am a draw.io user. :)

Gravityloss 7y ago

I've tried drawing diagrams with these tools and it seems so much harder for quick drafting than just using pen and paper and also a lot of work to get anything even remotely good looking (like aligning things or making boxes of the same size, ie performing mass operations). I would like to use a tool where I first describe the relations in text/code and the layouting and formatting is done separately, and formatting should be hierarchical.

gorn 7y ago
You can try mermaid https://mermaidjs.github.io/ https://mermaidjs.github.io/ This was the only tool I could find that would work with version control.
- andybak 7y ago
  That's nice. I can fit most of the syntax in my head (more than be said for Markdown...)
codeulike 7y ago
select multiple objects, go to align tab, select the alignment you want
gatherhunterer 7y ago
> it seems so much harder for quick drafting than just using pen and paper I don’t consider that a reasonable criticism. Of course using pen and paper is quicker and easier. The advantage of any digital format is that it is distributable, universally readable and persistent.
- adriand 7y ago
  Not to mention changeable! The ability to erase items, or to rearrange your diagram (and to have the lines between items automatically reflow) is another key reason to use a digital format.
- dta5003 7y ago

ouid 7y ago

When trying to create a new drawing, if I select the "not in my root folder" option, it a) tries to log me in despite my already being logged in, and b) fails anyway.

beernutz 7y ago
I see the same issue. I can save to root folder only in google drive. Also i am unable to open a file in google drive as it has the same "log in" dialog. https://www.screencast.com/t/g4wnSWLDtOLk https://www.screencast.com/t/g4wnSWLDtOLk Clicking the "Sign in" button closes the dialog and reopens it. It does this cycle twice, then shows this error pane: https://www.screencast.com/t/qmUhxSuU2T https://www.screencast.com/t/qmUhxSuU2T
- ouid 7y ago
  exactly that.
- davidjgraph 7y ago
  Pleas file an issue at https://github.com/jgraph/drawio/issues https://github.com/jgraph/drawio/issues. Can't recreate currently, but need more details.

freeman478 7y ago

It is a great tool ! Only issue with it is that the source code (of the front-end) is quite hairy to understand and modify. I tried to add support for Github Enterprise (https://github.com/jgraph/drawio/issues/473 https://github.com/jgraph/drawio/issues/473) and was quite lost.

davidjgraph 7y ago
It's a reasonable critism. The base of the stack is a proper dev library. The top part evolved from an example to that library and didn't get the same refactoring love to make it accessible to other devs. Main problem from our end on your issue is we don't have access to a Github enterprise instance to test anything.

dd36 7y ago

I used draw.io for a wiring diagram for my solar permit, as well as for a site plan for a fence permit. Works great! Love it!

tombert 7y ago

I love draw.io. I work for one of the big brand-name tech companies, and still routinely use draw.io for diagrams whenever I have to give presentations (high-level, system architecture things mostly). It's easy to get something that looks relatively pretty made relatively quickly, and unlike something like Omnigraffle, it works on Linux.

kylecazar 7y ago

Wow, this is a really slick experience on mobile. I've tried most tools in this class and this might be the most responsive & snappy. Maybe because everything is client-side.

krsdcbl 7y ago

I've been using draw.io massively over the last years everywhere from concepting & mindmapping up to integrating it directly into website editors where needed - huge kudos to the authors, such a useful and well designed tool.

azemzaj 7y ago

I am always interested in building graphical tools like this in the web client side, does anyone have experience in this area and let me know what technologies/frameworks that are used?

tcrow 7y ago

Been using draw.io for years and have turned many people at my work on to it. Simple, elegant, and works a treat! Thank you so much for sharing this work and for helping make the work day run a little smoother :)

jchw 7y ago

I had no idea draw.io was open source, is this new? Good stuff either way. I always thought it was amazing that it was free.

yoran 7y ago

Funny, I just used it this afternoon to create an diagram of our technical infrastructure. Initially I was looking for the "Sign up" button so that I could save my diagram in the cloud but then I realized that it's all run in the browser. Love it!

protomyth 7y ago

Does it allow boolean operations on shapes? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boolean_operations_on_polygons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boolean_operations_on_polygons

boyband6666 7y ago

The draft of my (part time) PhD thesis uses draw.io to present a flowchart of the findings - hopefully it makes the final cut next year. Fascinating to hear the other uses, and thankyou for a wonderful and elegant tool!

KhoomeiK 7y ago

I use this all the time for basic schematics, especially hackathon projects to explain app architecture to newcomers. Never new it was open source!

mips_avatar 7y ago

Draw.io is a phenomenal program, easier to use for new users than visio. I had everyone use it in my college's robotics team to draw system diagrams.

blakeburch 7y ago

If you're looking for a fantastic diagramming site, I would recommend checking out [Whimsical](https://whimsical.com/ https://whimsical.com/). I've tried out a lot of solutions over the years (draw.io, LucidChart,Gliffy, etc.). Whimsical is the first that really nails the UI/UX. You spend less time fighting the system to make something that looks great and more time just building out your diagram. I'm not associated with the product at all, but it definitely needs more love in the space.

fishtacos 7y ago
Draw.io has the advantage of being open source and able to be self-hosted. I wouldn't trade that flexibility and security for anything.
atentaten 7y ago
Thanks for sharing whimsical. I just played around with this for a few minutes and I found it enjoyable.
iDemonix 7y ago
Whilst it looks good, I love that I don't even need an account to use draw.io. We use it at work and integrates with Confluence perfectly.
Paul_O_Meany_Jr 7y ago
If we're delving into paid services, I find Miro to be another incredible product in this space that absolutely nails the UX. My whole design team collaborates on Miro now and we love it. https://miro.com/ https://miro.com/
- AlanYx 7y ago
  Another lesser-known diagramming tool that shares elements of Whimsical and Miro is Plectica: https://www.plectica.com/ https://www.plectica.com/
  - Aeolun 7y ago

dang 7y ago

Related from 2017: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15029989 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15029989 2013: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6464495 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6464495 2012: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4947820 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4947820

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

allenu 7y ago

I use draw.io all the time. It's incredibly simple and that's what makes it work so well. I can whip up a good architecture diagram in a few minutes using it.

j1elo 7y ago

After looking for good tools in this space, to create documentation diagrams, I stayed with Draw.io and yEd[1]. The latter has a pretty cool feature that re-arranges all objects according to some predefined layout. Quite neat. [1]: https://www.yworks.com/products/yed https://www.yworks.com/products/yed

ericrich 7y ago

I've worked with draw.io (mxGraph) quite a bit over the years. Love it!

papln 7y ago

I tried to save a Diagram to Google Drive, not in root folder: "Error Maximum call stack size exceeded"

CivBase 7y ago

Anyone have recommendations for a simple text-based flowchart specification format? Something that a human can read and easily understand in plaintext, but can also be rendered as a graphic? The current solutions we have at my work are extremely difficult to use with VCS. I've looked at Mermaid [0], but it is pretty limiting in its feature set. I typically use draw.io/mxGraph [1] when I'm making diagrams and flowcharts, but the XML-based file format is pretty overwhelming for humans to read. [0] https://mermaidjs.github.io https://mermaidjs.github.io [1] https://github.com/jgraph/mxgraph https://github.com/jgraph/mxgraph

gclawes 7y ago
These were posted on HN a few days ago: https://avdi.codes/tools-for-turning-descriptions-into-diagrams/ https://avdi.codes/tools-for-turning-descriptions-into-diagr...
steve-s 7y ago
GraphViz?
- graphviz 7y ago
  What?
pjc50 7y ago
There's always the ancient "Pic" language by Brian Kernighan, e.g.: http://mtorrest.sitios.ing.uc.cl/downloads/latex/flowchart.pdf http://mtorrest.sitios.ing.uc.cl/downloads/latex/flowchart.p...
justasitsounds 7y ago
plantUML[0] may be what you're looking for, specifically the activity diagrams[1].I've been using it extensively for sequence diagrams (has more features than websequencediagrams.com). Most recently I've been using this C4 architecture diagrams extension[2]. There's a VSCode preview extension[3] and a docker image[4] for running a plantUML server locally that lets me create and share version controlled diagrams with my colleagues easily. I especially like that there's an ascii renderer for the sequence diagrams that makes embedding them in Readme's very easy [0] http://plantuml.com/ http://plantuml.com/ [1] http://plantuml.com/activity-diagram-beta http://plantuml.com/activity-diagram-beta [2] https://github.com/RicardoNiepel/C4-PlantUML https://github.com/RicardoNiepel/C4-PlantUML [3] https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=jebbs.plantuml https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=jebbs.pl... [4] https://hub.docker.com/r/plantuml/plantuml-server/ https://hub.docker.com/r/plantuml/plantuml-server/

somishere 7y ago

I used draw.io a bit a few years ago, before running out of reasons between jobs. Tried out a few paid alternatives recently before re-stumbling across draw - connected it to my personal gdrive and uncovered a whole bunch of old (very useful) diagramming - forget slick UIs, draw.io a remarkable balance of simplicity, flexibility and function. And free! Someone mentioned handbrake and vlc, would definitely agree with the comparison.

darkandbrooding 7y ago

Just adding to the choir. This is a great tool. I prefer using open source software when possible, but I also like to pay for the tools that makes my job easier. The developer is aiming at corporate, volume licensing and I understand how a Patreon account would run counter to their business strategy. I wish there was a 'small dollar donations' channel, though. I like this tool enough to throw them some regular money.

yug_blop 7y ago

I can personally recommend precursor: https://precursorapp.com https://precursorapp.com

rajesh-s 7y ago

Long time draw.io user here. A couple of weeks back [brainio](https://brainio.com/#/ https://brainio.com/#/) was posted on HN. Though it's still in beta, it works really well and I like the concept of going from Markdown to Mindmap and vice-versa. Drawio is also trying to implement this through PlantUML but it's not fully functional yet with only some constrained types on PlantUML support.

jjice 7y ago

I was just using this today for an ER diagram for class with a group. Working on a single document as a group works well, which has come up quite a few times in my time at university. Draw.io offers everything I need (which isn't very much) without being overly complicated.

pknerd 7y ago

Didn't know it was open source. I used it for various diagrams for my blog posts. Thanks!

aguilar 7y ago

Also a good choice for fast easy prototyping and wireframing.