{"id":43320,"date":"2020-01-31T23:49:55","date_gmt":"2020-01-31T18:19:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thewindowsclub.com\/?p=43320"},"modified":"2022-03-12T19:23:32","modified_gmt":"2022-03-12T13:53:32","slug":"5-microsoft-visio-alternatives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thewindowsclub.com\/5-microsoft-visio-alternatives","title":{"rendered":"Free Microsoft Visio Alternatives | Network Diagram software"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">For drawing, preparing charts, flowcharts, one program that best suits everyone\u2019s need is <strong>Microsoft Visio<\/strong>. The industry-standard program lets you display complex diagrams quickly and easily. In addition, it lets you edit your diagrams if it ever requires to be changed. The program, however, is expensive, and not all can afford it.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">We have already seen some <a title=\"Free Microsoft Office alternatives\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thewindowsclub.com\/best-free-microsoft-office-alternative-software\" rel=\"noopener\">free Microsoft Office alternatives <\/a>earlier; now let us, therefore, take a look at some <strong>free Visio alternative Network Diagram software<\/strong> that may not be highly performant but still beat the program when it comes to price.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\">Microsoft Visio alternatives free<\/h2>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\">1] DIA Diagram Editor<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Available in more than 60 languages, DIA is a program to draw structured diagrams. With this program, one can draw entity relationship diagrams, UML diagrams, flowcharts, network diagrams, and many other diagrams.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thewindowsclub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/DIA-e1327945382455.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-43330 size-medium\" title=\"Microsoft Visio alternatives free\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thewindowsclub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/DIA-e1327945382455-400x266.png\" alt=\"Microsoft Visio alternatives free\" width=\"400\" height=\"266\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thewindowsclub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/DIA-e1327945382455-400x266.png 400w, https:\/\/www.thewindowsclub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/DIA-e1327945382455-150x99.png 150w, https:\/\/www.thewindowsclub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/DIA-e1327945382455.png 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The free program has the in-built ability to load and save diagrams to a custom XML format (<span class=\"gm_ gm_eda920ad-10b2-3d2c-bc5f-fa929096da95 gm-spell\">gzipped<\/span> by default, to save space), export diagrams to a number of formats (EPS, SVG, XFIG, WMF, and PNG) and print diagrams. It is also possible to add support for new shapes by writing simple XML files, using a subset of SVG to draw the shape. Apart from functioning on Windows, DIA works equally well with Mac and Linux. Go <a title=\"DIA\" href=\"http:\/\/dia-installer.de\/index.html.en\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here.<\/a><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\">2] Open Office Draw<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The free software has most of the\u00a0merits of Microsoft Office interface and includes some very useful applications for making diagrams, presentations, spreadsheets, and databases. It features \u2018Connectors\u2019 between shapes, which are available in a range of line styles that facilitate building drawings such as flowchart.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thewindowsclub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/OpenOffice.org-Draw.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-43333\" title=\"OpenOffice.org-Draw\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thewindowsclub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/OpenOffice.org-Draw-400x280.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"280\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thewindowsclub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/OpenOffice.org-Draw-400x280.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.thewindowsclub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/OpenOffice.org-Draw-150x105.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.thewindowsclub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/OpenOffice.org-Draw.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Using its \u2018Arrange Objects\u2019 feature one can group, ungroup, regroup, and edit objects while grouped. Another feature <em>rendering<\/em> lets you create photorealistic images with your texture, lighting effects, transparency, and perspective. Besides, it even can import <em>graphics<\/em> from all common formats (BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, TIFF, and WMF) and allows creating your art and adding it to the gallery. Visit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.openoffice.org\/product\/draw.html\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">this page<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3>3] Inkscape<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Inkscape is an Open Source vector graphics editor with a streamlined interface that makes editing nodes, performing complex path operations, tracing bitmaps much easier. Though it does not provide all the features of the leading vector editors, its latest version offers a large portion of basic vector graphics editing capabilities.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thewindowsclub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Inkscape.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-43334\" title=\"Inkscape\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thewindowsclub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Inkscape-400x257.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"257\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thewindowsclub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Inkscape-400x257.png 400w, https:\/\/www.thewindowsclub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Inkscape-150x96.png 150w, https:\/\/www.thewindowsclub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Inkscape.png 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The program supports many advanced SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) features like markers, clones, alpha blending, etc. besides, it can import formats such as JPEG, PNG, TIFF, and others and export PNG as well as multiple vector-based formats. Click <a title=\"Inkscape\" href=\"http:\/\/inkscape.org\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here.<\/a><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\">4] Graphviz<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Graphviz represents structural information as diagrams of abstract graphs and networks. The open-source graph visualization software includes several main graph layout programs. It takes descriptions of graphs in the form of simple text language and then makes diagrams in several useful formats. Details <a title=\"Graphviz\" href=\"http:\/\/www.graphviz.org\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thewindowsclub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Graphviz-e1328018697242.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-43368\" title=\"Graphviz\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thewindowsclub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Graphviz-400x313.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"313\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Graphviz features:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li>Colors<\/li>\n<li>Fonts<\/li>\n<li>Tabular node layouts<\/li>\n<li>Line styles<\/li>\n<li>Hyperlinks<\/li>\n<li>Custom Shapes<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Recently, two more features were added to the program,<\/p>\n<ol style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li><span class=\"gmw_\">Lightweight edge labels (<\/span><span class=\"gm_ gm_18d59566-685e-56f8-2c8d-daee1cabb565 gm-spell\">xlabel<\/span><span class=\"gmw_\">)<\/span><\/li>\n<li>Tapered edges (as a style)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h3>5] Kivio<\/h3>\n<p>Kivio, a part of KOffice open-source office suite is a free program for making diagrams and flowcharts. It has a user interface similar to Visio but differs in a way that it allows adding a grid to the drawing plane and gives the option of splitting the pane into two drawing areas.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-43386\" title=\"kivio\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thewindowsclub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/kivio.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"239\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thewindowsclub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/kivio.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.thewindowsclub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/kivio-150x89.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Other features include,<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Scriptable stencils using Python<\/li>\n<li>Support for Dia stencils<\/li>\n<li>A plugin framework for adding more functionality<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Thus, we see some programs are more suitable for artistic work while others are better for technical drawings. The choice, however, depends on the preference of the potential user. It is now available at <em>calligra.org<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For drawing, preparing charts, flowcharts, one program that best suits everyone\u2019s need is Microsoft Visio. The industry-standard program lets you display complex diagrams quickly and easily. In addition, it lets you edit your diagrams if it ever requires to be changed. The program, however, is expensive, and not all can afford it. We have already [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":43386,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1008,471],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v21.5 (Yoast SEO v21.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Free Microsoft Visio alternatives | Network Diagram software<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"List of free Microsoft Visio alternative software, to prepare complex diagrams. 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Include Kivio, Graphviz, Inkspace, Open Office Draw, DIA Diagram Editor.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.thewindowsclub.com\/5-microsoft-visio-alternatives\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Windows Club\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheWindowsClub\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-01-31T18:19:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-03-12T13:53:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.thewindowsclub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/kivio.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"239\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"HemantS@TWC\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@TheWindowsClub\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@TheWindowsClub\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Free Microsoft Visio alternatives | Network Diagram software","description":"List of free Microsoft Visio alternative software, to prepare complex diagrams. 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