Creating diagrams and drawing out plans is something that just about everyone can use, no matter the profession. Diagrams help us to better visualize our data and to better explain certain processes and relationships between statistics. They can be used in reports, presentations, lectures and many other, similar situations.
There are plenty of professional tools for creating diagrams, such as the Microsoft Visio software and very other professional applications. However, there are some great free tools avaialble as well for people who don’t need diagrams very often. Here are eight such excellent free tools that you can use.
1. Draw.io
Draw.io is a web application that you can use through your web browser. This means that there is no need to download or install anything. Once you open it, you simply have to determine where you want to save your diagram once it has been created. It’s very easy to use and gives you a nice variety of figures and options to use. You can change their shapes, add color, change their size and make many other alterations to customize your diagrams. Of course, text can be added as well. When you are done, simply click on File > Download to download it to your computer. It allows you to download your diagram in a variety of file formats.
For those who are not familiar with Libre, it is a free office application for people who do not want to pay for Microsoft Office but want a suite that works similarly. Draw helps you to make your own plans, diagrams and various other visual data representations. It lets you enter symbols and arrows to connect ideas better and once you are done, simply export the drawing and save it as a PDF, image file or a variety of other formats.
3. yEd
This free downloadable tool gives you a wealth of options when creating diagrams. You can use a large variety of shape nodes and symbols. It’s especially great for creating flow charts. There are automatic layout options that serve as templates if you do not have ideas of your own. It’s very easy to export the diagram once you are finished as well, and lets you export into XML.
4. ArgoUML
If you are looking for an open source solution for creating diagrams, ArgoUML is probably the best one available. It gives you options for creating a large variety of diagram types, including collaboration, sequence and deployment diagrams. There’s also an large number of options when it comes to formating. Though these diagrams might not be as aesthetically pleasing as most, they will get the job done and ArgoUML probably gives you the largest number of options for customization when it comes to free tools.
This is another simplistic, but very user friendly option when it comes to diagram creation with free tools. There are a great variety of templates to use, and go beyond simply idea-mapping. You can use templates to create diagrams of optical work, engineering plans, HVAC solutions, and much more. It is a downloadable tool that is free to use and easy to install and understand.
6. Gliffy
Gliffy is another great solution for people who would rather work directly from within their web browsers. There is nothing to download and install, simply run it in the browser of your choice. It’s one of the best tools if you are looking to collaborate with co-workers and send ideas to one another through the use of diagrams. You can also allow your colleagues to further edit the diagrams you have created in order to share their ideas.
Diagram Designer gives you a nice amount of customizable templates to work with. It also has a built in spellchecker, which not many free diagram tools offer. There is a huge amount of file types that you can import and export in using this tool, including WMF, BMP, JPEG, GIF, PCX and more. There’s also a calculator tools that allows you to perform mathematical equations from within the diagrams.
8. Pencil
Pencil is available as both a downloadable tool and as an extension for your Firefox browser. It is used a lot by people who are getting into designing mobile apps, because it has Android and iOS shape stencils already installed. Drawing diagrams is incredibly easy and intuitive with this application. There are many shapes to pick from, since the Pencil community creates its own shapes often and shares them with anyone who is interested in using them.
