Don’t let the simplicity of use fool you. Both Kivio and Dia, two free software diagramming tools, are very efficient at what they do. If you need to design a complex flow chart or create a no-fuss UML diagram then you could do a lot worse than to choose either of these packages. The tools have 90% of the expected functionality with only 10% of the hassle and fuss that more complex and unnecessarily feature rich proprietary diagramming tools deliver. The learning curve is small and the end result is potentially professional.

GNOME and KDE are the predominant desktop environments for GNU/Linux. Both environments sport their own office suites; these two office suites try hard to contend with the mastery of OpenOffice; it is important to note OpenOffice does not have a diagramming tool such as Microsoft Visio. You may argue with some degree of success that Impress or Draw from OpenOffice may mimic the functionality, but Impress or Draw’s emphasis is on presentation and vector based drawing respectively and not on diagramming using precreated symbols.

In this article, I will briefly mention how to install KOffice’s Kivio and GNOME Office’s Dia application and quickly tour the products. I personally believe that both tools perform their specified function well and are amazingly easy to learn—the basics are absorbed within five minutes. In the end, because of their fundamental equality, personal bias may pull you to choose either one of these applications.

Installation

I have chosen Ubuntu 6.10 as the OS for this demo, which is the newest version of Ubuntu at the time of writing.

Don’t be fooled by the fact that the applications are part of KOffice or GNOME Office: both will run happily under either of the two desktop environments.

Before we start you might want to install the Adept package manager, which the KDE environment may be missing: to install this utility simply execute the following from the command line:

sudo apt-get install adept libqt-perl

You should now be able to launch Adept via K menu/System/Adept Manager Manage Packages

To install Kivio (version 1.5.2) launch Adept and fill in the system admin password that you use with sudo; via the search box at the top of the Adept window, search for “kivio”. You should now be seeing a view similar to figure 1. The packages Kivio and Kivio-data should be set to the status of “install requested” and then click on the green tick icon at the top of the dialogue. You now have a working version of Kivio executable from both GNOME and KDE.

Figure 1: Adept at work

What I refer to as the “GNOME office” is not really an office suite but rather a collection of tools, which includes the well-known and respected AbiWord, Dia and a few other assorted applications.

To install Dia version 0.95 via the GUI from within GNOME, launch Synaptic Package Manager via Applications/Add Remove; you will need to fill in your admin password when prompted. Select Graphics/Dia Diagram Editor as shown in figure 2, then click on OK.

Figure 2: Installing Dia in Synaptic

To install from KDE you are able to search for “dia” in Adept and install.

Dia basics

Once Dia has started, you will find yourselves with two separated windows as shown in figure 3.

The main left hand window is the drawing plane and the right is the diagram editor. If the left window is missing or you have removed it by mistake, simply go to the Diagram editor and select File/new.

To select different symbols click on the sheet name. In figure 3 the name is “Network”, but normally you start with the “Basic” flow charting sheets: select other sheets and choose the one you consider relevant. Back in the diagram editor drag and drop the symbols across onto the drawing pane.

Underneath the symbols sit icons that allow the creation of lines of various thicknesses, colours and structures. Above the symbols lie special icons for importing images or connecting objects with different shapes; ‘T’ stands for text and obviously allows for the annotation of your diagram.

With this basic functionality, you will be able to create reasonable diagrams within minutes. The failure of some applications is their developer’s desire to include every function imaginable which results in overly complex menu structures that have a significant and inappropriate learning curve. Dia follows the highly effective UNIX spirit of staying focused and doing its specified function well.

To save a file select File/Save from the drawing plane itself. You may also export the current project to many different formats including TIFF, JPEG and SVG. The ability to save to SVG is a form of future proofing as SVG is an XML format that stands a significant chance of becoming the graphics standard for web browsing. XML is just text and is, therefore, much easier to manipulate on the fly than a binary such as JPEG.

Dia activates two other dialogues by pressing F8 or F9 respectively, or by visiting the file menu option of the diagram editor. F8 activates the diagram tree which represents all the symbols within your drawing as objects; right clicking on an object in the tree allows for easy access to the property dialogue where you can change properties such as colour and line type: this efficiency makes rapid and consistent editing possible.

Pressing F9 activates a sheet and object dialogue that allows you to add and move objects (such as computers or flags for example) across different sheets. For example, you may move a computer symbol from the sheet “Cisco—Computer” to “Networks” if desired. You may also import SVG like graphics as objects, but more on this later.

The drawing plane itself also has a number of menu options. “Diagram” allows you to separate a drawing into layers so that you can manipulate objects on one layer without affecting another. The “Objects” menu option enables you to send objects backwards and forwards so as to be behind or in front of other objects, with the ability to set transparency for background objects. This feature allows for sophisticated and pleasing diagrams.

In summary, Dia is easy to learn and definitely not overly complicated, yet it still manages to deliver the functionality required to produce detailed diagrams that are pleasing to the eye.