Linux alternates to Visio?

3/7/2011 12:30 PM EST

Hi,

I was in a similar boat and was tired of Visio. I mainly used it to draw block diagrams and flow charts for documentation.

I have found the following program more suitable to my needs than Visio for FREE, which is rather ironic.

Check it out and let me know how you like it.
http://www.yworks.com/en/index.html

Samuel Chen

3/10/2011 11:47 AM EST

For block diagrams I use inkscape - http://inkscape.org/
It's more in the mold of something like CorelDraw or Adobe Illustrator.

3/11/2011 3:44 PM EST

Samuel and 0xC0FFEE, Thanks for the pointers, the yEd looks very promising. I'll give an update after playing with them this weekend.

3/11/2011 5:20 PM EST

Just run Visio using Wine:

http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&iId=119

3/13/2011 10:59 AM EDT

If Visio is used only for UML and block diagram I think Inkscape could be the good one. Hint: try "connector tool" in Inkscape.
Bye.

3/14/2011 8:18 AM EDT

How about LibreOffice Draw(http://www.libreoffice.org/features/draw) or OpenOffice Draw (http://www.openoffice.org/product/draw.html)?

3/17/2011 7:07 AM EDT

I haven't seen any real good alternative to Visio yet. However, you can try Dia.

3/17/2011 7:07 AM EDT

Dia: http://projects.gnome.org/dia/

3/20/2011 1:05 PM EDT

why not try this one
http://opencircuitdesign.com/xcircuit/

3/20/2011 7:21 PM EDT

So, I've tried Dia and Inkscape. I really miss the multiple pages stored in one document. Inkscape doesn't have the UML templates or I couldn't find them. I couldn't get Visio under wine working under Ubuntu.

What I'm trying now is Dia for just general block diagrams and the UML tool for eclipse. It's not perfect but it works for now.

3/21/2011 12:20 AM EDT

Hi,
I am new to ubuntu and would like to know if there is an application that will run native i386 code. I have an old-old Visio 4.1 Tech, back before MS bought it and required registry. I have installed it on all of my computers including Win7. I just copy the Visio folder to the program folder and add a couple of VB dll. I would not use any other 2d cad program. I have used it for 16+ years for designing houses, boats, plotting property lines, radiant heat design. I use it before cutting a piece of anything. The measure addin makes designing radiant heat loops a snap. Need I say more? Again, is there a ubuntu apps that will run i386 instruction code?

3/24/2011 2:04 AM EDT

Jim. I have good collectiob of schematics on visio.If you need that I can send it to. May be you can tweak something in ubuntu can use it.

3/26/2011 7:53 PM EDT

Open Office Draw is also another good alternative.

4/28/2011 3:51 PM EDT

I've used Visio and Open Office Draw; Draw does multiple sheets in one drawing, has shapes with editable connection points, and a host of other useful features.

Best for casual users - it's orders of magnitude more user-friendly than Dia (ran it in Windows under Cygwin!)

5/22/2013 1:09 AM EDT

Lucidchart is a very strong alternative to Microsoft Visio. It's web-based so has all the features you would expect like collaboration, integrations with Google, etc.

https://www.lucidchart.com/pages/visio-linux-alternative