UMLBoard 4+

This little app shows a lot of promise. It's great for sketching quick UML class diagrams with a minimum of effort.

There are two areas where it badly needs improvement.

First, it does a very poor job of following basic macOS file management conventions. For example, if you double click one of its documents, the Finder launches the app, but the app refuses to open the doccument. The only wan to open an existing document is from the File menu within the app.

The second area where this app badly needs improvement is in the routing algorithm for class associations. The app sometimes routes these in crazy ways and the user has no way to nudge the lines into a more sensible position.

Despite these two flaws, this is still a useful tool and is worth the 99 cents price.

I hope the author continues to improve this very nice little app and addresses the issues I noted above.

Hi K. Rande,
Thank you very much for your feedback and sorry for the inconvenience regarding the file opening behavior, I will investigate the issue asap and try my best to fix it in the next release.
The next version (1.6) will also provide an update to the routing algorithm, along with custom anchor points to adjust the routing and additional docking ports.
If you encounter any other issues, please don't hesitate to contact me at contact@umlboard.com.
Best regards,
Patric

UPDATE October 2024: The issues I ran into a year ago seem to have been addressed — though I haven’t deliberately tried to break anything, I used UMLBoard to create a significant work document very quickly. The editor performed well and was smart about connection routing when elements were moved. Bumping this up to 5 stars for sheer speed of editing and ease-of-use, a responsive developer, and because it is still an actively supported product.

Keep up the good work!

Hi dealloc,
Thanks a lot for taking the time to write this very detailed and comprehensive review, and sorry for the inconveniences you encountered, especially the ones with the undo/redo operations.
As you pointed out, unfortunately, not all actions are stored in the undo stack yet, which could result in strange behavior when undoing/redoing longer workflows. But I will definitely look into this issue.
Regarding the out-of-view action menu, thanks for reporting this. I will also try to fix this for the next version.
I also fully agree with you that handling overlapping connectors can become quite challenging. I haven't figured out an intuitive and easy solution yet, but I will evaluate some concepts for the next release (maybe using an additional key to "iterate" through the lines during mouse-over?).
Please don't hesitate to contact me at contact@umlboard.com if you encounter any issues or have any ideas for additional features.
Thanks a lot!
Best regards,
Patric

This is a clever little app that knows what it shoud focus on - class diagrams and explanatory text around those diagrams. you can almost treat it a bit like a word processor with embedded diagrams, i find i can construct nice little design explanations with it.

It would be nice if it did multi-page or something equivalent, so i could hold a larger model, but in it's current form it's very tight and useful so it's hard to complain!

Hi KingPurply,
Thank you very much for your review. I'm happy to hear that you like the app!
Support for multiple pages/diagrams is definitely an important feature. It's already in the backlog, but it might take a bit until it's available.
If you have any additional feature ideas or encounter any issues, please don't hesitate to contact me. Thanks!
Best regards,
Patric