Tablet UML (from The Tablet UML Company) is a Unified Modeling Language tool for the Tablet PC. It lets you build UML models with a simple “Smart Cocktail Napkin” user interface: you draw, and it understands.

• Use the Tablet PC pen to draw shapes (circles, rectangles, triangles, and lines). Tablet UML will translate them into UML elements appropriate to the current diagram type: actors, classes, interfaces, components, processors, objects, activities, branches, swimlanes, states, and more.
• Draw connectors (arrows and lines), and Tablet UML will translate them into UML relations: associations, dependencies, generalizations, and more.
• Draw anything at all, and manually tell Tablet UML how to recognize that shape.

But Tablet UML is not just a drawing tool. It’s a full-fledged modeling tool: you create diagrams as a way to create rich UML models, and then view the details of those models through more diagrams and reports. Beyond the diagrams, Tablet UML maintains a model tree, containing all of your recognized model elements so that they can be reused in other diagrams. You can also:

• Save and load models.
• Work with multiple models at once.
• Reverse engineer models of compiled .NET code! (Works with any .NET language that compiles to Microsoft Intermediate Language, including C#, VB. NET, J#, Managed C++, and others.)
• Print models.
• Export models as Web sites.

Tablet UML is ideal for Agile Modeling, Agile Development, and eXtreme Programming, where the development process depends on rapid, easy communication with low overhead. The “Smart Cocktail Napkin” user interface means that you’ll spend very little time learning Tablet UML and very little time struggling with the tool. The goal is simplicity: the UML tool you don’t have to learn. That will leave you more time and more freedom to solve your development problems.

Tablet UML is also great for requirements analysis during interviews and workshops. Like many Tablet PC applications, the natural pen-and-ink user interface lets you work in a way that’s less disruptive than running a keyboard and mouse during a meeting. One common complaint about laptops in meetings is how the laptop screen and the clicking of keys create a social barrier. Using Tablet UML is much more like writing notes on a notepad, with no barrier between you and your interview subjects. Also, users can more readily see and understand what you’re doing than they can with a complicated mouse-and-keyboard tool. And the tree-and-detail layout lets you easily draw something in a diagram, tap it in the tree to add notes about it, and switch back to the diagram to draw more elements.

Diagram Features

The following features are common to all diagrams in Tablet UML:

• Draw in multiple colors, pen shapes, and pen sizes to let you communicate better.
• Drag elements from the model tree and drop them onto any diagram.
• Click on an element to rename it or add a stereotype.
• Select an element to move or resize it.
• Select a connector to bend or reshape it.
• Erase elements from a single diagram, or from the entire model.
• Add related elements to a diagram automatically.
• Control how much detail is displayed in a given diagram.
• Zoom in or out and scroll around, to work with larger or smaller diagrams.
• Add text stereotypes to describe your own unique modeling needs.
• Add notes and note attachments.
• Print an individual diagram.
• Export a diagram as a Web page.
• Export a diagram in a range of formats: BMP, GIF, JPG, EMF, WMF, TIF, and more.

The following are features for specific diagram types:

• Use Case Diagrams:
  • Actors.
  • Use cases.
  • Associations.
  • Communications.
  • Domain classes.
  • Attributes and operations for actors and domain classes. Click on attributes or operations to edit them.
• Class Diagrams:
  • Classes.
  • Interfaces.
  • Associations.
  • Navigable associations.
  • Generalizations.
  • Association classes.
  • Attributes and operations for classes and interfaces. Click on attributes or operations to edit them.
• Component Diagrams:
  • Components.
  • Interfaces.
  • Realizations.
  • Dependencies.
  • Attributes and operations for interfaces. Click on attributes or operations to edit them.
• Deployment Diagrams:
  • Processors.
  • Paths.
• Activity Diagrams:
  • Start states.
  • End states.
  • Activities.
  • Transitions.
  • Branches/Merges.
  • Forks/Joins.
  • Objects.
  • Swimlanes.
• Sequence Diagrams:
  • Objects.
  • Lifelines.
  • Messages.
• Collaboration Diagrams:
  • Objects.
  • Collaborations.
  • Messages.
• Package Diagrams:
  • Packages.
  • Dependencies.
• State Diagrams:
  • Start states.
  • End states.
  • States.
  • Transitions.
• Freeform sketch diagrams:
  • Anything you might want to draw. Tablet UML lets you use these for concepts that might not fit well in traditional UML diagrams.

Other Modeling Features

• Detail panes. Allow you to describe elements of the model in more detail than appears in a diagram. Also allow you to write notes to describe an element, and then optionally convert those notes to text.
• Integrated help.

And More Value…

• “Five Step UML Tutorial”: A simple introduction to requirements gathering, design, and analysis with the Unified Modeling Language.
• Free upgrades for one year.
• Free on-line tech support.

Try It!

The Tablet UML Company now offers a free demonstration version of Tablet UML. This version is licensed only for noncommercial/evaluation purposes. It’s completely functional, save that it marks each diagram with a watermark that indicates the diagram was created with a demo version. This is a great way for you to evaluate how you can use Tablet UML in your work before you decide to purchase.