Software to design flow charts

[FutureScience]

I've been programming a lot for my thesis in Matlab.

I've to include a technical description for my job without being too specific about the code used. So my intention is to use nice flowcharts to describe what my scripts are doing.

What kind of software do you suggest me for drawing proper flow charts?

Thanks in advance!

[story645]

Visio, google pulls up a dozen automatic generators (http://www.google.com/search?q=matlab+flowchart+generator&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a). What level of detail do you need?

[rcgldr]

The last time I used a flow charting tool, I used All Clear flowcharter. You wrote pseudo-code and it would generate the flow chart (you had a choice of "styles", and could post edit the created flow chart). After our group had used it for a while, some of us in the group convinced the remainder in the group that the psuedo code did a better job of explaining what was going on than the flow charts, so the group switched to just using pseudo code for most of our work, and only using flow charts for some external presentations.

[FutureScience]

I don't need to go deep in detail, but to give to the reader a brief idea of how the programm is working.

[story645]

Then visio, or even open office draw, should suffice.

[FutureScience]

Then visio, or even open office draw, should suffice.

Perfect, I think I'm going with OpenOffice Draw!

Thanks!

[rcgldr]

The issue with most drawing programs is they have no knowledge of connections between the objects in your flow chart, making it very time consuming to edit them. If you move an object around on your flow chart, none of the connections will move with it and you'll have to redraw those as well.

[pantaz]

The issue with most drawing programs is they have no knowledge of connections between the objects in your flow chart, making it very time consuming to edit them. If you move an object around on your flow chart, none of the connections will move with it and you'll have to redraw those as well.

Inkscape (http://inkscape.org/) (open source) maintains connector links when moving objects. A feature I really like is the "avoid" property that can be toggled for individual objects, so connector lines pass through, or are routed around the object.

[Dr Transport]

The issue with most drawing programs is they have no knowledge of connections between the objects in your flow chart, making it very time consuming to edit them. If you move an object around on your flow chart, none of the connections will move with it and you'll have to redraw those as well.

So does open office....

[Edgardo]

Another program is Dia (http://live.gnome.org/Dia).
The Windows version can be downloaded here (http://dia-installer.de/).

Example flowcharts created in Dia:
Drawing with Dia (https://commons.lbl.gov/display/LPR/DrawingWithDia)
Posting Flowchart (http://dipot.com/2009/01/how-i-post/)

1) 8 minute video tutorial on Dia (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVsvsrzxmnI)
Explains everything from download to creating first diagrams

2) Page Setup in Dia for Flowcharts (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmue3vltass)

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Besides, here is a short comparison (http://programmersjournal.blogspot.com/2008/03/dia-vs-visio.html) of Visio (commercial program), Dia and Open Office.

[john963]

There are many software available by which you can draw flow charts, however, I will recommend opt for Visio (http://www.visiotoolbox.com/2010/) as it is one of the best diagramming software to create flow charts and other diagrams, also it is simple and easy to use.

[FutureScience]

What software do you suggest for ubuntu? Dia looks fairly good to me.

[story645]

open office also works on ubuntu