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Dia
is a vector-based drawing tool similar to Win32 OS
Visio. It is suitable for graphical languages such as
dataflow diagrams, entity-relationship diagrams, organisation flow
charts, universal modelling language (UML) diagrams, electronic
circuit diagrams and much more. It is ideal when the diagram has
shapes that recur and are connected by lines.
Dia
is extensible through the use of sheets
which contain collections of shapes for use in diagrams. The ER
sheet, for example, has shapes for different types of entities,
attributes and relationships as required when drawing
entity-relationship diagrams for database design.
Dia
also runs under Win32 OS (see
https://hans.breuer.org/dia) providing a free cross platform
tool. Storing it's diagrams natively as XML documents means that they
are accessible on multiple platforms and from other applications. You
could even edit the dia
XML diagrams by hand. Some
applications also generate dia
diagrams.
In this chapter we begin with some basics and then a walkthrough that
should get you started with dia. We then review the functionality
of dia. And we end with a walkthrough creating your own shape
library.
Subsections
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