Diagramming with Dia

Dia is a commonly available package for a Linux users. It’s an all-around diagramming tool, actually. From UML diagrams to ERDs, to flowcharts and other diagrams I am not familiar with (Sybase, Cisco, electric), it seems to be your one-stop app. I can’t open Visio (VSD) files with Dia though But it’s better than nothing, if I were to draw a diagram from scratch, that is.

Use Case Diagram on Dia

Good news for those who need to read .VDX files though. It seems capable of doing so. In the file open dialog, .VDX files are included in the file extensions list. So maybe for the latest versions of Visio, there might not be much of a problem. Apparently, Dia can also export files in that format. Amazing, right?

Some pros and cons of Dia:
Pros

1. It can accommodate drawing many types of diagrams.
2. Commonly found in various distros repos.
3. Not too complicated, in terms of how many menus, dialog boxes, etc. that the user has to view.
4. It can open .VDX files and it can also export to the said file format.

Cons

1. It cannot open .VSD files.
2. It might be confusing to others to edit a particular object. Tapping on an object once allows you to edit the label/name/title. Double tapping makes you edit its attributes.
3. It might not have the diagramming convention you are used to. If you know only one notation and that’s the one you need, then Dia might not be the appropriate tool for you.
4. Some symbols seem to be missing. For the mock use case diagram I just drew a line instead of a relationship diagram, like what you’d typically see in JUDE, etc.

I still think that Dia might actually stand a chance if the interoperability problems will be solved. Otherwise, users will just keep on wanting to use Visio instead.