Create and modify systems in the environment supporting the Unified Modeling Language, all types of flowcharts and data flow diagrams, ER layouts, CRUD and Requirement diagrams, basic and advanced mind maps, etc. Detailed report and plan generation is possible.
Astah Professional can come in handy when you are working on a large project that requires careful planning and design. The tool has the advantage of supporting UML (Unified Modeling Language), which makes it compatible with other similar software. Likewise, its UML editor allows Mind Mapping. As you may have noticed, this is not the kind of tool intended for the general user as it requires expertise on other subject areas. Luckily, the product is accompanied with an excellent user guide. Besides, there are several video demos and a tutorial available on line.
The program’s interface has the sober look that characterizes technical software. There is a project view which gives you a glimpse of the whole work. Moreover, there are tabs that let you switch to other views, such as Structure Tree, Inheritance Tree, Map, Search and Alias.
The program lets you create practically any type of diagram necessary for modeling a project, including Sequence Diagram, Statemachine Diagram, Communication Diagram, Activity Diagram and Composite Structure Diagram, Flow Diagram, ER Diagram, CRUD, Requirement Diagram, Requirement Table, Traceability Map and Mind Map. It also allows converting Mind Maps to Data Flow Diagrams.
Astah Professional comes with a huge set of features. For instance, the tool can import Java source code as well as generate Java skeleton code. It also lets you share your diagrams in many ways. In this respect, you will probably find that the possibility of copying and pasting diagrams directly into Office documents is quite convenient. Moreover, the tool allows saving the diagrams in various popular picture formats, such as PNG, JPEG, EMF and SVG. Notice here that, since vector images are supported, there will be no quality loss when imported into other software. Fortunately, the tool’s features can be expanded through installing plug-ins, which are available for free.
To conclude, Astah Professional is certainly one of the best options if you are looking for project modeling software. The product is quite pricey considering there is a fee per user, but you can still acquire a per-month license occasionally. Fortunately, students may apply for a free license. It is also recommended to take a look at other products of the same family, called Astah UML, Astah GSN, Astah SysML and Astah Viewer.
v8.1 [Feb 6, 2019]
- [7410] We switched bundled JRE from Oracle Java to AdoptOpenJDK.
- [7437] [Update Diagram] menu is added to adjust the model elements on the diagram. We've changed a drawing library with this version, so diagrams created with earlier version may look different on Ver8.1. This [Update Diagram] menu adjusts the difference to make the diagram look better.
- [----] We discontinued the Startup Screen.
- Following bugs have been fixed.
- [7416] It takes longer to load .asta files after updating to Ver 8.0.
- [7401] An exception error occurs when trying to change the font color of line labels.
- [7392] Unable to show Astah on full screen on Mac.
- [5351] Input/Output Pins connected to Actions will be relocated incorrectly when automatically resizing the Actions or converting it to CallBehaviourActions.
- [6380] Texts could stick out of objects when increasing/decreasing the zoom.
- [7387] Showing Ports on Parts in Composite Structure Diagram could throw an exception error.
- [7384] Relocating Mindmap topics could thrown an exception error.
- [7389] Starting and Ending points could be located strangely when you create lines in Curve or Curve (Right-angle) style with more than one midway points.
- [7398] Commandline tools won't work when you are running Astah with Floating License.
- [7405] It is unable to create another DataFlowDiagram from existing ProcessBoxes.
- [7408] Exported DFD Hierarchy spreadsheet would not open.
- [7412] When you close dialogue asking you if you want to overwrite existing file upon exporting Entity Definition Report, it'll launch Microsoft Excel.
- [7407] It could fail to export Entity Definition Report.
- [7430] It is unable to modify Qualifier directly on diagram.
- [7443] Moving model elements with shortcut key (Ctrl Arrow keys) could thrown an exception.
