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Flowcharts

Started by striker87 May 3, 2013 at 5:47 AM 7 replies 2.9k views
Original Post
striker87
striker87

I was wondering if anyone knows of any good free flowchart software. I did a little bit of searching but haven't found any yet so thought I'd ask here to see if anyone has any recommendations. I apologize if this isn't the right forum to post this but figure it will be as creating flowcharts is a part of game design.

LorenzoGatti
LorenzoGatti

Last time I made flowcharts, I used Dia; it was a bit incoherent with respect to snapping to grid (anchor locations often went off the grid) but not too annoying

Omae Wa Mou Shindeiru
Orymus3
Orymus3

Excel :)

It's not pretty, but it does work, and while its not free, a lot of people have already bundled it with their home computer purchase.

mipmap
mipmap
  • If its a small drawing I would use something like powerpoint which is free online if you get a outlook account.
  • If it is a larger drawing then I would go Inkscape. It's interface is complex and different and from illustrator and visio, as it handles colors/formatting in a ankward way (my opinion), but it has connectors and "infinite" drawing space. It saves in .svg format or .pdf so sharing is pretty smooth. Best part: it's open source!
Servant of the Lord
Servant of the Lord

Excel smile.png

It's not pretty, but it does work, and while its not free, a lot of people have already bundled it with their home computer purchase.

What benefits does Excel provide over Word (when it comes to flowcharts)?

mipmap
mipmap


Excel smile.png

It's not pretty, but it does work, and while its not free, a lot of people have already bundled it with their home computer purchase.

What benefits does Excel provide over Word (when it comes to flowcharts)?

  • An Excel spreadsheet page is very large compared to the very limited word page.
  • You can do calculations in the flow-chart which is sometimes needed.
Servant of the Lord
Servant of the Lord

Good points, hadn't thought of either of those.

With flow-charts, the larger/almost-infinite page width is especially important.

3Ddreamer
3Ddreamer

Hi,

I make my own 2D flow charts using Inkscape. Soon I will be expanding the system with embedded buttons to access relevant pages. It is turning into a powerful and flexible little system. I grab one of my templates that I made, make quick changes, and have a flowchart which meets my needs for a particular project exactly! biggrin.png

Clinton

Personal life and your private thoughts always effect your career. Research is the intellectual backbone of game development and the first order. Version Control is crucial for full management of applications and software.  The better the workflow pipeline, then the greater the potential output for a quality game.  Completing projects is the last but finest order. </p
Bacterius
Bacterius

I usually use whatever drawing program is available, e.g. OpenOffice/LibreOffice. Sometimes if I need a vector graphics one I'll use a special tool like inkscape or dia (which was mentioned previously). That said I don't do game design so our criteria when it comes to choosing flowchart software might differ.

I also believe there is a LaTeX package for flowcharts and I wanted to check that out eventually.

“If I understand the standard right it is legal and safe to do this but the resulting value could be anything.”

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