ConceptDraw Suite

By Dale Farris, Reviews Coordinator Golden Triangle PC Club April 2008 General Overview ConceptDraw is a highly creative, impressive group of drawing programs from a clever Ukraine software developer company. This company provides various drawing programs (see below), and their flagship product is ConceptDraw Business Suite. These super drawing programs will turn heads of customers who may be experienced users of Microsoft Visio or SmartDraw. All the ConceptDraw programs have been designed to be easy to use and to provide the specialized templates, symbols, and graphic images that are of special interest in various industries. The ConceptDraw Business Suite is a professional solution for enhanced thinking and pro-quality creation of visual documents that enables managers, businesses, and educational and research centers to effectively manage projects, solve problems, make decisions, and document and present concepts, structures and processes as clear maps, charts and diagrams. The Suite includes professional versions of ConceptDraw MINDMAP 5, ConceptDraw Project 4, and ConceptDraw 7, and the program will help customers create infrastructures for creative work, project management, charts, and diagram drawing. This suite offers superb value for the price, as it combines the many powerful features of these three ConceptDraw programs that may also be separately purchased. The ConceptDraw software adds brainstorming and mind mapping functionality to generate ideas and make decisions, as well as provide the opportunity to create a wide range of business diagrams and charts. The mind map application covers the whole path from an idea to a planned project. Also ConceptDraw Business Suite solves the problem of exchanging documents between mind mapping, project management, and drawing software by providing a handy document workflow. ConceptDraw Business Suite applications cover a variety of business, management, research and education documenting tasks. It is a powerful toolkit for project management, business administration, small business management and various professional tasks. Use ConceptDraw Business Suite to create different kinds of documentation in order to visualize, share and present information. Use ConceptDraw Business Suite to develop your ideas and plans, to track and manage projects, and to present various data, structures and processes as smart and clear flowcharts or diagrams. Seamlessly share files across Windows and Mac OS X. Key Features Easy data exchange Easy data exchange between mind-mapping, and project and diagramming tools allows you to avoid problems with importing/exporting that can occur with software from different manufacturers. Powerful drawing and task automation tools These tools allow you to create complex drawings and schemes without expending much effort. You can easily modify an existing drawing by making a few changes because the rest will be redrawn automatically. Handy task-specific Templates and Wizards A number of task-specific Wizards will guide you through the main stages of document development resulting in increased productivity. Cross-platform compatibility This software is easily installed, shared and operated on both Macintosh and Windows platforms. ConceptDraw MINDMAP Key Features Use the world-famous Mind Mapping technique In combining words, special symbols, color and pictures, mind maps are very similar to the way we think. Customizable brainstorming mode Enables you to quickly generate ideas and discuss them in a group. A built-in timer lets you set a time-limit for brainstorming sessions. Multi-Page Maps Each map may have several pages connected by hyperlinks. Multi page preview mode lets you navigate easily between pages. Powerful drawing tools Powerful drawing tools give you the freedom to create and organize your own unique maps. ConceptDraw Project Key Features Multi-Project management You can run many projects within single document, making them easier to track and manage. New project interface makes it easy to switch between projects and their views. You can embed one project into another project with all of the task dependencies preserved along with the synchronization of any changes made in any associated document. Powerful Resource Management System Manage resource information regarding tasks assigned to each resource in all of the defined projects. Plan and manage the contracting of human resources, which are assigned to the different defined tasks in different projects. The sharing and balancing of resources between projects is accomplished in a single screen that shows all of the resource dependencies inside a single project, or across projects. Powerful Reporting System Create comprehensive reports on project activities, cash flow and assignments. You can easily save your reports in any format that meets your purposes: HTML reports – to share information with stakeholders via Internet; Excel format - to use project data for accounting systems; RTF reports – to use in required documents and reports. ConceptDraw Key Features Comprehensive drawing capabilities Both simple and complicated objects can be easily created by using vector drawing tools and our extensive collection of shapes. Flexible & handy interface Completely new user-friendly interface provides easy access to the main tools, customizable toolbars and floating dialogs. Intelligent objects You can freely customize your objects by assigning them properties, adding context menus, and creating links to other shapes, files or programs. Ready solutions for easy start Our template gallery lets you select from many task-oriented template that you can easily start your document from. Feature Tour Functionality Vector Drawing Tools ConceptDraw 7 offers a set of vector drawing tools that can compete with any professional illustration program. Customizable Grid and Snap tools help to position your shapes precisely. A number of Alignment, Distribution and Make Same tools will automate routine operations with multiple shapes. Unlimited number of layers is supported. Smart Connectors Lines stay linked to their shapes, so you don't need to redraw your diagram every time you move something. Smart connectors can follow shapes around, as well as display gaps or bridges where they cross other connectors. Every shape can be turned into a connector. The automatic connection mode is also available. Custom Connection Points With ConceptDraw 7 Connection point tool you can easily add connection points to any part of the shape for more diagramming freedom. Layers You can use unlimited number of layers to organize related shapes in one document page. For instance, when you draw a house plan, you may locate electrical system on one layer, water supply system on the other one, etc. This makes work more convenient, and you won't accidentally alter shapes on other layers. Texture fill This functionality allows you to create professionally looking objects by filling ConceptDraw shapes with one of the preset textures or any raster image of your own Libraries and cliparts ConceptDraw 7 comes with dozens of collections of shapes to help you create a number of different types of diagrams, and drawings such as Network Diagram, Office Layout, Org Chart and more. It allows you to easily create your own customized drawing tools by drawing your own shapes or dragging the existing graphics onto a new library. The vast set of clipart allows you to illustrate your documents or presentations in a clear and vivid way. Presentation mode With Presentation Mode you can perform an attractive full screen presentation from ConceptDraw documents without a need to use any special application. Usability Dynamic help The Dynamic Help assistant helps you to reduce program start up time. Choose a tool, object or press a button and immediately get proper information. Powerful text tools Most of shapes in ConceptDraw contain text. ConceptDraw offers extensive formatting capabilities, and various tools for work with text, such as adding text to a shape, editing shape's text, text searching, replacing, formatting and repositioning, adjusting shape's size to fit its text, text auto-expand mode, choosing size, color and font of text; alignment, margins and text background color. Color palette You can use the standard color palette or a custom palette. You can set a palette for a shape, its text or other attributes or document. Alpha-channel (transparency) The slider next to Hide Custom Color button allows you to add transparency to your objects in order to make them more attractive or enables you to see objects located underneath. Move the slider to the right to increase the object transparency and to the left to decrease it. Drop tool It's now more convenient to select the necessary color of text, line or filling with the new drop tool. Target Customers The lineup of ConceptDraw programs provides an impressive group of drawing programs that competes well with Microsoft Visio and SmartDraw. This Ukraine company has created an ingenious, clever family of drawing programs that offer specialized drawing along with basic, fundamental drawing features. The flagship package, ConceptDraw Business Suite, combines the power of ConceptDraw 7 Professional with ConceptDraw MINDMAP 5, used for professional brainstorming, mind mapping, and visual thinking, and ConceptDraw Project 4, used to plan and track multiple projects. This smart combining of various features results in capabilities in ConceptDraw Business Suite that are not available in Microsoft Visio or SmartDraw. This Ukraine company has uniquely responded to the specialized drawing needs of all sorts of diverse customers in various industries. ConceptDraw has a polished look and feel that's similar in many ways to Visio. By default, the interface shows the Template Gallery, with a list of template categories. You can select each of the categories in turn to see examples for that category. When you see one that seems appropriate for the diagram you want to create, simply double-click on it to open the appropriate template. The working screen is divided into multiple panes. On the left is a narrow pane with a list of buttons showing the currently open templates. Click on a button and the shapes for that template are shown below it. You can then drag a shape over to the drawing area on the right. As you assemble the diagram, you can position each shape, resize it, and add text and connectors as needed. Connectors stay connected as you move objects, stretching, shrinking, rotating, and moving as needed. You can also use any object as a connector. This latest version of ConceptDraw adds the ability to use an unlimited number of layers, and it adds anti-aliasing to give a more professional look to angled lines. The program supports XML for Visio, and it will import a Visio and it will also export files to Visio. While ConceptDraw does not yet match the sophisticated collaboration tools in the latest version of Visio, if your are less concerned with collaboration than with diagramming, then ConceptDraw can provide all the features you need, at a lower price than Visio. Also, you will want to be sure and check the company's support site for their continuous improvements to the program that are available via electronic download. System Requirements Windows P-IV 1.7GHz or faster processor Windows XP, Vista 150MB free hard disk space 256MB RAM Note: The above mentioned system requirements are similar in all the various available ConceptDraw programs, and each program's specific system requirements are listed at the ConceptDraw Web site. Macintosh G4 or higher processor MacOS X 10.4 or later 150MB free hard disk space 256MB RAM As any user of any diagramming or drawing program knows, the faster the processor and the more RAM the better these and any other program will run. With these diagramming programs, you really do need to strive to run these on the fastest processor you can manage in your company. The coding and the processing required to make these user interfaces so easy to use results in a significant demand on system resources. Price $499 Concept Draw Business Suite ConceptDraw 7 + ConceptDraw MINDMAP 5 + ConceptDraw Project 4 $299 Concept Draw 7 Professional Your Business and Technical Diagramming Tool $199 Concept Draw Mind Map 5 Professional Tool for mind-mapping, brainstorming and creative thinking $119 ConceptDraw Mind Map Personal $199 Concept Draw Project 4 A simple and powerful Project Management application $299 Concept Draw Net Diagrammer Network diagramming, planning and design, LAN scanning and visualization $299 Concept Draw WebWave Plan your website design and structure About Computer Systems Odessa ConceptDraw products are developed and published by Computer Systems Odessa. Computer Systems Odessa is a software corporation, and has been in the software business since 1993. The range of products includes graphics and productivity software, server solutions and games for Windows and Macintosh platforms. CS-Odessa also offers customized development services and acts as a software publisher. Founded in 1993, Computer Systems Odessa supplies cross-platform productivity tools and graphic technologies to professional and corporate users. With headquarters in Odessa, Ukraine, CS Odessa sells ConceptDraw tools internationally through resellers in over 25 countries. CS Odessa hosts annual ConceptDraw World Conference in May, an event dedicated exclusively to ConceptDraw productivity software and solutions. Contact CS Odessa LLC 1798 Technology Drive, Suite 244 San Jose, California 95110-1399 +1 (877) 441-1150 +1 (408) 441-1150 FAX +1 (408) 441-1138 www.conceptdraw.com/en