What do you use as a substitute for Microsoft Visio? Is it convenient to use?

a month ago by SocialistVibes01 to c/opensource

Edit: multi domain assets would be nice. Many applications suggested here have only simple flowchart + UML diagrams.

helix 42 points a month ago

Draw.io is pretty good. It has a desktop version you can download as Flatpak. I even use it at work and got the IT dept. to install it by default. They're saving hundreds a month due to this.

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schnurrito 5 points a month ago

Wait, has that become open source again in recent releases? I remember it not being for a while, but the repo currently says Apache 2.0? Anyone know more about it?

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sepiroth154 13 points a month ago

I think this quote says enough:

The icon sets and stencil libraries included in this software, and any derivatives thereof (including conversions to other formats, traced reproductions, substantially similar visual representations, or AI-generated images created using these icons as reference or training input), may not be used as software assets in, distributed for use with, or incorporated into Atlassian products or products distributed through the Atlassian marketplace or plugin ecosystem, without explicit written permission.

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AustralianSimon 3 points a month ago

I'm a big fan, its just such a great open source tool and it comes with full BPMN2.0 support out of the box.

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Theoriginalthon 16 points a month ago

Draw.io my feeling is you you need anything more fancy, you have missed the point of flowcharts and things like it. I have used the basic tools in libre office and word, it just depends on what you need to do.

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relic4322 2 points a month ago

Plus its just XML to its easy to derive flows programically

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klangcola 3 points a month ago

And you can export to PNG with the source XML embedded in the PNG metadata, effectively making it an editable PNG

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rastacalavera 2 points a month ago

What the what?!? I need to know more

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Theoriginalthon 1 point 25 days ago

I also need to know more, that's an amazing feature

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jrcruciani 0 points a month ago

This

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DeathByDenim 13 points a month ago

LibreOffice Draw worked well enough for me. It can even open Visio documents. It doesn't save to Visio though, so I had to give up on it eventually as the company mandated Visio documents, even though they just end up being inserted into other documents as PNG.

But the drawing part was solid for me.

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hyacin 8 points a month ago

EXCALIDRAW!!!!!

LOVE, LOVE LOVE EXCALIDRAW!

Sorry, caps, but, I really do love it that much. And it's just right there on the web, free, you can load it up on any computer and illustrate any concept. LOVE it.

I've used it for everything from a quick sketch during a brainstorming session, to highly complex network diagrams that wind up embedded in 'official' docs in Confluence and such, which would traditionally be the realm of Visio in my line of work. I love it so so so much - and am not in any way affiliated, lol, just a very passionate user!

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IanTwenty 7 points a month ago

Do you prefer to code your diagrams? Many options to see and try at:

https://kroki.io/

Pikchr is surprisingly quick to get results in.

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TroublesomeTalker 5 points a month ago

I quite like mermaid.js for fast flowcharts. It's intuitive enough and works in a fair few markdown programs too. Wouldn't recommend it as a full Visio replacement, but it's good enough for 90% of my needs.

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fruitycoder 1 point 25 days ago

Mermaid.js and UML has covered what I thought were some pretty complex systems diagrams myself

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pory 4 points a month ago

I was looking for one of these yesterday and honestly they're all pretty clunky web browser applets. If I'm replacing a Microsoft Office program I want a fully featured desktop app, not a .io website, yknow?

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Squizzy 2 points a month ago

I detest the differences in their desktop and online versions. Office is such a cumbersome mess.

Visio online is useless, just a viewer.

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pory 1 point a month ago

Well yeah. If i wanted to use a browser applet, I don't see why I'd use MS at all. But for this specific use case (diagramming and flowcharting), Visio (imo) is pretty far ahead of LibreOffice Draw and that's the only serious offline non-MS option for this.

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Squizzy 1 point a month ago

I have a chip on my shoulder, if office is mentioned I have to make sure everyone hates it

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sumsinj 2 points a month ago

I personally used latex with the tikz library.. It was strange but all the other things annoyed me

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NGC2346 2 points a month ago

I love yEd graph editor because you can import your own assets and make it like Visio.