plantuml : quick UML diagrams (with Eclipse plugin available)

Follow installation instructions here:
http://plantuml.sourceforge.net/graphvizdot.html


you MUST install Grephvz 2.28 (NOT 2.30, it will not work)
I installed to C:\pierre\Graphviz 2.28\

Then you must declare the environment variable GRAPHVIZ_DOT=C:\pierre\Graphviz 2.28\bin\dot.exe

Then copy the  plantuml.jar to a folder c:\pierre\plantuml

Then open a new CMD window, cd c:\pierre\plantuml,  and run:
java -jar plantuml.jar -testdot 
It should show success. If not, scream.

At this point you can run "java -jar plantuml.jar" and if you place any .pu file in the c:\pierre\plantuml folder, it shall be converted to a png file.

try this:

@startuml
Object <|-- ArrayList
@enduml


you should get this:

Pretty simple.... but don't expect it to compete with a Rational Rose....

More on UML Class Diagrams: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class_diagram