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phuong

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 16, 2006
523
0
like the title said, is there any program for drawing diagrams on OSX like Microsoft Visio? and it would be best if it's compatible with MS Visio.
 

Heath

macrumors regular
Aug 19, 2005
133
0
Canada
Visio alternatives

I doubt you will find anything that is compatible with Visio due to using a proprietary Microsoft format. However there are alternatives that do similar things. Check here for a couple.

http://www.osalt.com/visio
 

SMM

macrumors 65816
Sep 22, 2006
1,334
0
Tiger Mountain - WA State
I doubt you will find anything that is compatible with Visio due to using a proprietary Microsoft format. However there are alternatives that do similar things. Check here for a couple.

http://www.osalt.com/visio

MS bought Visio in 2000, they did not author it. The original company, Shapeware (later Visio), was always an x86 app, but there were quite a number of other employees around who may have ported a similar product. Just speculating, understand.
 

Queso

Suspended
Mar 4, 2006
11,821
8
OmniGraffle Pro from the Omnigroup. It's compatible with the Visio XML formats so drawings can be shared between the two that way. I use it all the time, and the output impresses a lot of hardcore Visio users. Make sure you get the PRO version for Visio compatibility.

They're also about to release an MS-Project compatible app named OmniPlan. If it's as usable as OmniGraffle I'll definitely be purchasing it.
 

mduser63

macrumors 68040
Nov 9, 2004
3,042
31
Salt Lake City, UT
OmniGraffle Pro from the Omnigroup. It's compatible with the Visio XML formats so drawings can be shared between the two that way. I use it all the time, and the output impresses a lot of hardcore Visio users. Make sure you get the PRO version for Visio compatibility.

They're also about to release an MS-Project compatible app named OmniPlan. If it's as usable as OmniGraffle I'll definitely be purchasing it.

Recommendation seconded. OmniGroup is a cool company, and they make good apps. OmniGraffle is very powerful.
 

chillywilly

macrumors 6502a
Mar 3, 2005
675
26
Salt Lake City
Another important point to remember is that none of these apps offer true Visio file compatibility without importing or exporting the Visio XML file back and forth. Until MS decides they want to do a Mac version of Visio, this is the best way to interoperate.

I've used ConceptDraw V for a while now and it's not a bad app. Very easy to use and one that produces some nice output. And importing of Visio XML files is good and they also have a seperate program that can concert Visio VSD files to Visio XML for importing into ConceptDraw.

As with OmniGraffle, the Pro version is needed for Visio importing.
 

Queso

Suspended
Mar 4, 2006
11,821
8
Another important point to remember is that none of these apps offer true Visio file compatibility without importing or exporting the Visio XML file back and forth. Until MS decides they want to do a Mac version of Visio, this is the best way to interoperate.
As with all the Office programs, MS is moving towards using XML as the default file formats on Visio. Give it another couple of years and VSD will only be used when people open old documents.

Thank the European Commission for that one, by forcing Microsoft to open their file formats to other companies.
 

tfalstad

macrumors newbie
Oct 18, 2009
1
0
Giffy

I like this one:

http://www.gliffy.com/

With a bit of tweaking, you can get just as good results as Visio.

+ it's free, and you can access your diagrams anywhere in the world, as it's all web based!

+ you can export your diagrams


Dan :)

Thanks for this - I just started using with the trial and love it - especially the web-based interface.
 

westam

macrumors member
May 8, 2010
34
0
Thanks for this - I just started using with the trial and love it - especially the web-based interface.

cool, looks great, i will give this a try (and it plugs into Jira too)!!! 5 bucks per month is very reasonable but i dont like subscriptions. too bad they don't do one time fee.
 

misterb101

macrumors newbie
Dec 13, 2010
1
0
Try YED

I would try out Yed from yworks. works amazing with layouting of large diagrams. Just the import functionality is fairly limited
 

JYork23

macrumors member
Jan 16, 2008
51
0
Connecticut
Just a reminder, you can always install Windows on your Mac (via Bootcamp or Parallels/VMWare) and use Visio that way. I'm sure you thought of that, but just in case...
 

odowd80

macrumors newbie
Mar 26, 2009
7
0
Google Docs

If you're just looking to do flowcharts, Google Docs does this very well with their "Drawing" documents. Can export as png, jpg, svg, and pdf.
 

BeardedOne

macrumors newbie
Dec 8, 2011
1
0
MS Visio on OSX - ConceptDraw PRO

I like to use ConceptDraw PRO, I find the product easy to use and meets my drawing requirements. Once you import your Visio file the library objects that were used in your drawing are set aside and can then be saved to your local library for future use by you. The product is very comprehensive and goes beyond drawing shapes.
 

GreybeardedOne

macrumors newbie
Jun 4, 2012
2
0
One more comment on ConceptDraw PRO

One more comment on ConceptDraw PRO. With the release of the most recent version of the product they now have introduced ConceptDraw Solution Park. On a regular basis they release new objects and templates and I just need to update my product to pick up the changes.

They recently introduced an extensive UML update, that we use frequently at work. We have a few PCs in our work environment and as we transition from a PC to a Mac we just move the license over to the newer platform. Makes it dead simple.
 

BayouTiger

macrumors 6502a
Jul 24, 2008
536
297
New Orleans
I also go back to the old Shapeware days. They had a great product, culminating in the excellent Visio Technical. Another product that Microsoft bought and slowly destroyed through the years. 2010 (in Fusion) is so sluggish as to be almost unusable if you work with anything with any complexity.

I use it for Electrical One Lines. I am still looking for an alternative on the Mac side. Yes I do many of them in AutoCad LT, but I can't do the nice snaps and links the same way. Of course 2010 doesn't handle them like the old Technical version did either. At this point it is just a Block Diagramming tool. It used to be sooooo much more!

I will certainly look at the ones mentioned, though Omnigraffle didn't work well for my use.
 

bhanks

macrumors newbie
Sep 27, 2012
5
0
Lucidchart is a good Visio option for mac because it runs in your browser. We are going to be supporting stencils really soon. The professional version is the level that supports Visio import/export.

What are you going to be using Visio for in particular?

Here is a link to the Professional version.
 
Last edited:

SDDave2007

macrumors regular
Apr 12, 2007
197
1
I am an independent software developer and am currently in the process of developing a "Visio-like" application for OSX. However, it will be a few months before it is code complete and pass all phases of testing.

But it will come with a a large number of predefined shapes (flowchart, arrows, stars etc), and will allow the user to define as many as they want using an XML like data structure
 
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