PlantUML to the Rescue

PlantUML has always been the diagramming tool that I was looking for. I am a visual person and the ability to put my thoughts into diagrams is much easier now. I ran into PlantUML while developing software in PyCharm. I was in the middle of understanding a large scale Python code-base and needed a visualization tool to take notes and get the big picture of the design of the library.

Example 1

@startuml

''top to bottom direction
:Mind: as A
:Body: as B

left to right direction
A -- B
A .. B

newpage

A -left-> B
B -up-> (C)
(C) ..> A

@enduml

Example 2

@startuml
title Cellular Construction Architecture

(Biological Universe) as BiologicalUniverse

(Bacteria) as B
(Archaea) as A

[Prokaryotic Cells] as PC
note as PCN
*Lack defined nucleus
*Simplified internal organization
end note
PC .l. PCN

[Eukaryotic Cells] as EC
note as ECN
*More complicated internal structure
*Defined, membrane-limited nucleus
end note
EC  .r. ECN

top to bottom direction

BiologicalUniverse -d-> PC
BiologicalUniverse -d-> EC

PC -down-> B
PC -down-> A
@enduml

Links

  1. Website
  2. JetBrains Plugin