Diagrams

PlantUML

PlantUML is based on the Graphiz engine but its great for doing any diagrams:

Sequence diagram
Class diagram
State diagram

For me, the great thing is that you can embed the plantUML code within the source code of your project and track change with git.

Example

Here is a simple schema diagram for my database class.

schema

@startuml
skinparam monochrome true
entity "beds" {
	+ <u>id</u> [PK]
	--
	name
	area
}

entity "seeds" {
	+ <u>id</u> [PK]
	--
	+ fid (family_id) [FK]
	+ do_best (month_id) [FK]
	--
	name
	sunlight
	water
	area
}

entity "month" {
	+ <u>id</u> [PK]
	--
	name
	avg_high
	avg_low
	water
}

entity "family"{
	+ <u>id</u> [PK]
	--
	name
	alias
}

entity "affects" <<(R,olive)>>{
	+ <u>id</u> [PK]
	--
	bid (beds_id) [FK]
	mid (month_id) [FK]
	--
	sunlight
}


entity "planted" <<(R,olive)>>{
	+ <u>id</u> [PK]
	--
	bid (beds_id) [FK]
	sid (seeds_id) [FK]
	--
	date
}

seeds::fid -[dotted]-> family::id
seeds::do_best -[dotted]-> month::id

affects::bid -[dotted]-> beds::id
affects::mid -[dotted]->month::id

planted::bid -[dotted]-> beds::id
planted::sid -[dotted]-> seeds::id


beds "m" ||- planted
planted  -|| "n" seeds

beds "m" ||- affects
affects  -|| "n" month

seeds "m" --* "1" family : member_of
seeds --- month : do_best

@enduml