Text -> Diagram Tool [closed]

Question

I'm looking for an diagram tool for producing diagrams from text. I only really need sequence and state type diagrams for now, but I'm curious as to what people would recommend? I need something which is standalone, not a web based tool that works on Linux, OSX and Windows.

Font

Not programming related? – Tidewaiter

Ditaa is a good example of such a tool - ditaa.sourceforge.net – Font

I don't see how it isn't programming related... – Font

So you want something that takes text and produces drawings? Or do you want something that produces ASCII art drawings? – Mackinnon

Ok a little misleading, I'm looking for a tool that takes ASCII text and outputs images. – Font

An exhaustive list of such tools can be founde here: modeling-languages.com/content/uml-tools#textual – Maltase

Check out https://mcmap.net/q/571375/-text-gt-diagram-tool-closed for the reverse. i.e. generating text diagrams – Stetson

Answer 1

I'm not positive what you mean by "producing diagrams from text", but if you mean a tool where diagrams are specified by a text file, Graphviz is good. If you mean something that literally converts ascii art like

+--------+   +-------+    +-------+
|        | --+ ditaa +--> |       |
|  Text  |   +-------+    |diagram|
|Document|   |!magic!|    |       |
|     {d}|   |       |    |       |
+---+----+   +-------+    +-------+
    :                         ^
    |       Lots of work      |
    +-------------------------+

to a graphic:

You can try ditaa (that ascii art is from their website, so it's a good example of the input format it expects)

Marquita

+1 Ah good old dot; had a professor in college that loved that tool for BNF Expression Trees – Craigcraighead

Any online tool like Graphviz? – Saccharify

@Sobiaholic, I found on xosh.org/text-to-diagram online tool for Graphviz - webgraphviz.com – Withdrawal

Answer 2

Look at PlantUML, LaTeX+MetaUML, sdedit, TextUML, yUML, ... There is a plenty of quite good tools.

Angst

PlantUML looks pretty good, thanks... – Font

I'm the author of the PlantUML Gizmo, which is a free add-on for Google Docs or Microsoft Word. It allows using PlantUML in those documents. – Staggs

Answer 3

I recommend TextDiagram http://weidagang.github.com/text-diagram/. It creates UML sequence diagram from pure text.

Example input

object April Todd Monad
note left of April: Lunch is ready
April->Todd: Todd, what are you doing?
note right of Todd: Programming @_@
Todd->April: Well, I'm programming.
April->Monad: And you?
Monad->April: I'm reading book.
April->Monad: Good boy!
note right of Monad: Smile ^_^

produces:

               +-------+                       +-------+               +-------+
               | April |                       | Todd  |               | Monad |
               +-------+                       +-------+               +-------+
-----------------\ |                               |                       |
| Lunch is ready |-|                               |                       |
------------------ |                               |                       |
                   |                               |                       |
                   | Todd, what are you doing?     |                       |
                   |------------------------------>|                       |
                   |                               | ------------------\   |
                   |                               |-| Programming @_@ |   |
                   |                               | -------------------   |
                   |                               |                       |
                   |        Well, I'm programming. |                       |
                   |<------------------------------|                       |
                   |                               |                       |
                   | And you?                      |                       |
                   |------------------------------------------------------>|
                   |                               |                       |
                   |                               |     I'm reading book. |
                   |<------------------------------------------------------|
                   |                               |                       |
                   | Good boy!                     |                       |
                   |------------------------------------------------------>|
                   |                               |                       | ------------\
                   |                               |                       |-| Smile ^_^ |
                   |                               |                       | -------------
                   |                               |                       |

Stockstill

@slm it's moved to weidagang.github.com/text-diagram – Stockstill

Any idea if this supports multithreading? I have a feeling the answer is no :( – Forehand

Answer 4

I'd recomment PlantUML. It is an excellent tools that lets you draw all kinds of UML diagrams from simple textual specification.

Deliberation

Answer 5

EventStudio supports generation of sequence diagrams and collaboration diagrams from text input.

Carnet