UML Tools

I have try Poseidon for UML Community Edition, Omondo EclipseUML Free Edition in our MT365 Lab session and Visual Paradigm for UML Community Edition at home. Among these three UML tools I will choose VP as my first choice and I will share my findings below.

I evaluate those three UML tools in two aspects.
First, ease of installation.
Poseidon is the most easiest to install. No activation key is needed. VP is a little bit complicated since the Community Edition needs an activation key. EclipseUML is the most complicated one to install within these three UML tools since it need to install a plug-in separately.
Second, ease of use.

I evaluate the ease of use of these three UML tools by doing the lab exercise. VP is my favorite in this aspect since the tools provided in the application is very straight forward. Several linkage nodes on each item are very well organized. I can complete the lab exercise very quick by using VP. Followed by Poseidon, the user interface is also very easy to understand but it is a little bit trouble to model the aggregation and multiplicity. It provide detailed setting when doing making the diagrams. EclipseUML is the most difficult to use UML tools for the first-time-user like me since I spent almost double of time to find out how to draw a simple use case diagram.
Finally, I will choose Visual Paradigm as my favorite UML tools among these three choices since it is easy to use and can create a quite good looking diagram.