DiagramStudio

Blueprints are a representation of your ideas, as well as the initial step when building a project of various types. It can be time-consuming to create such a template and a great deal of accuracy is also required. Luckily, specialized computer applications like DiagramStudio let you create schematics, designs and templates for an impressive array of activities and environments.

Based on the popular style everyone's familiar with, namely the Office suite ribbon menu and interface, accommodation quickly becomes a thing of the past. Most of the space represents your canvas, but you can attach a fair amount of panels to your workspace, such as an objects browser, properties, selection and navigation panels for quick identification and editing.

Although the application tricks you into thinking you only get to create diagrams, don't be fooled by the name. Starting a new project quickly reveals the abundance of activities you can create a template for, with categories like block diagram, building plan, engineering, flowchart, forms and charts, maps, network diagrams, software and web design being the main categories, each equipped with different templates to give you a quick start.

Once you reach the workspace you're only limited by your imagination. Content libraries automatically load according to the type of project you choose, but you can add any other type whenever you want. These contain an abundance of objects like network elements, cars and buildings, various shapes and symbols.

It's also possible to insert image files under formats like JPG, BMP, DIB, ICO, PCX and JPG, text elements, as well as OLE objects for more variety in your design. With the properties panel up, you can take the time to adjust color, size specifications, shadow options and arrangement on layers.

When you're done, you can generate different file types besides the default one. Images, HTML web pages and PDF provide enough flexibility, but you can also send your project via email, which comes in handy if multiple individuals are part of your team.

Taking everything into consideration, we can say that DiagramStudio lives up to expectations and manages to bundle an impressive array of templates, objects to work with and editing options in a highly-intuitive interface so that your project meets any demand. It has a low impact on system resources, with little time required for accommodation and various export options which make this application definitely worth a try.