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There are a lot of UML Diagrams besides the well known use cases, and class, activity and sequence diagrams. Those other diagrams are not so common, so not all the diagram tools for UML include them.

That's the case of the UML Composite Structure Diagram. For example, DIA doesn't include it. WhiteStarUML includes it, but I don't like it because it is not intuitive. It is maybe possible with yEd as we can create forms with our own images, but I wasn't able anyway.

Do you know an intuitive tool to create this diagram?

chelder
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Have you tried Papyrus? http://lowcoupling.com/post/47802411601/uml-diagrams-and-models-with-papyrus it is free and very well made

Andrea Sindico
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  • I didn't know it. Very nice tool for the [Eclipse Modeling Framework](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eclipse_Modeling_Framework). It also can generate code automatically from the diagram, right? [Here is the installation intructions, by the way](http://www.eclipse.org/papyrus/updates/index.php) – chelder Feb 14 '14 at 16:58
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    Yes. Actually to generate any code and docs you can define your own model to text transformations through the OMG language MOFM2T which is realized by the Eclipse plugin Acceleo. See http://lowcoupling.com/post/47347056110/models-to-text-transformations-with-mofm2t-and-acceleo – Andrea Sindico Feb 15 '14 at 07:07
  • I have used Acceleo in the University last year. This new approach is awesome, but it was hard to manage just because the lack of documentation then. – chelder Feb 15 '14 at 12:18
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    here is the ACCELEO specification which is actually the specification of the MOFM2T language http://www.omg.org/spec/MOFM2T – Andrea Sindico Feb 15 '14 at 19:10
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You can use VP-UML, community edition. It is free and it has the Composite Structure Diagram. Only today I used it this way.

And notice, the modelling tools are not nice, look here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/21727625/715269. Notice some numbers that are written vertically. I don't want it, but I can't control it. And EA(not free variant) is less nice and IBM Modeller, that is free, is MUCH less nice.

Diagramming tools can be nice, but they do not support modelling - check for correctness and inter-diagram dependencies. Of them, I found MS Visio acceptable, but it is not free.

Community
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Gangnus
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  • Vertical numbers look weird that's right, but it is OK! **Modelling includes code generation, doesn't it?** This time I don't need it, but I'm happy to know about these modelling tools. I could use Visio for free (agreement with the university), but not my mate... I think I'm going to use Visual Paradigm - UML anyway. We can [download the free edition of Visual Paradigm here](http://www.visual-paradigm.com/solution/freeumltool/). We can [see all the products of Visual Paradigm here](http://www.visual-paradigm.com/product/vpuml/editions/). – chelder Feb 14 '14 at 18:20
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    @chelder Modelling also includes the inner logic check and that the tool sees all diagrams of a project as a complex. And if you have one diag, you can partly create another simply by instantiating the existing elements from repository to the new diagram. Very useful. Honestly, the cheapest license is not so expensive and I would surely bought it, but I'll buy a professional EA version for me for my work by the mean of the wallet of my employer :-). And as I am never simultaneously present on two places, I think, I'll install it at home, too. – Gangnus Feb 14 '14 at 21:50