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Ask HN: Best tool for software architecture diagrams?

by adius·5y ago·12 comments·view on hn ↗

Hi, I need to be able to quickly create software architecture diagrams for our customers. I have previously been using presentation software (e.g. Google Slides) and graphics editors (e.g. Affinity Designer). And while they allow me to create quite beautiful diagrams, they are not very fast if you have to e.g. add additional elements which don't fit the existing layout.

For smaller architectures https://diagrams.mingrammer.com works really well, but it often breaks for more complex layouts.

What are your recommendations?

12 comments

> For smaller architectures https://diagrams.mingrammer.com works really well, but it often breaks for more complex layouts.

I'm curious, can you share some examples about when/how it breaks? So far I have had nothing but success with it.

We've been working on something for exactly this! Simple, structured, rapid living system design docs for visual people. Maybe you could see if this helps? https://icepanel.io/

excalidraw.com

There are some libraries available [1]

[1] https://libraries.excalidraw.com

Have you looked at Graphviz?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphviz

Diagrams uses Graphviz under the hood. I think the problem is that Graphviz' layout algorithms are too generic / not optimized for software architecture and therefore it's difficult to get a good rendering.

https://www.umlet.com/ a free offline UML tool

Nothing really beats plantuml. Vc friendly too

draw.io or diagrams.net

Whimsical

Excalidraw

LucidChart

draw.io