PlantUML


PlantUML is an open-source tool allowing users to create UML diagrams from a plain text language. The language of PlantUML is an example of a Domain-specific language. It uses Graphviz software to lay out its diagrams. It has been used to allow blind students to work with UML. PlantUML also helps blind software engineers to design and read UML diagrams.

Applications that use PlantUML

There are various extensions or add-ons that incorporate PlantUML.
PlantUML uses well-formed and human-readable code to render the diagrams.
There are other text formats for UML modelling but PlantUML supports many diagram types and does not need an explicit layouting, though it is possible to tweak the diagrams if necessary.

Example

The source code for the class diagram shown on the right is as follows:

skinparam style strictuml
class Façade
Façade.> package1.Class1
Façade.> package2.Class2
Façade.> package3.Class3
Client1.> Façade : doSomething
Client2.> Façade : doSomething
note as N2
doSomething
end note
Façade.. N2