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  A Well-Drawn Network Di agram Could Be Worth A Few Thousand Nodes  By James R. Stromski
Wen Frederick R. Barn-ard declared "a picture is worth one-thousand words," he knew that a graphical representation often does a better job conveying an idea or concept than the written word.
In the network diagramming arena, this is especially true. Today's network diagramming tools feature drag-and-drop image libraries, drill-down capabilities for creating multilevel diagrams, and database, file and Web links. With all of this versatility built in, these tools are more than mere drawing packages--they are true network documentation applications.
Visio Corp. Visio Professional 4.5
Although Visio Professional scored above average, it wasn't as easy to use as NetDraw Plus. Visio's user interface is comfortable--but not as clean as NetDraw and ClickNet. Visio's toolbar is a bit cluttered, but the tools are rec-ognizable. R esizing objects is merely a left-mouse-click aw ay. Additionally, Visio autoconnects lines to devices, making it easy to rearrange drawings on the page. Right clicking on an image provides a menu from which you can perform image-editing operations. One very impressive feature is Visio's ability to attach multiple documents, files and hyperlinks to individual images. During testing, we were able to attach Microsoft Word documents, an .AVI video file, a link to Visio's home page, a text file and a .WAV file. In fact, you can attach almost 50 documents, files or hyperlinks to an individual image. NetDraw Plus could attach only a single file, and ClickNet could add only executables to be run on the selected image. When you right-click on a Visio image, you get a menu that lists all of the possible jumps from the single image. Visio offers many other features, including advanced wizards to assist you in all areas of diagramming; a Web site diagramming wizard that automatically generates a hierarchical dia gram of all the site's pages; Office97 compatibility; enhanced color handling; and the same Visual Basic development environment as Office97. Visio's greatest feature is its image libraries. NetDraw and ClickNet have device images to choose from, but neither is as extensive as Visio's.
With Visio, diagrams and shapes can also be linked to Open Da tabase Connectivity (ODBC)-compliant desktop database applications, such as Mi crosoft Access and Excel and Borland dBase and Paradox. It also supports links to client/server databases, including Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle. A practical use for this feature would be to link a record from an inventory database to a corresponding image in a diagram. One can then access inventory information directly from a Visio network diagram.
By Jeff Ballard Updated August 23, 1997  |
To view the Report card.
Visio Professional 4.5 was the top-ranked package we tested--mainly because it offers so much more than network diagramming. It also can diagram software design and documentation, database mapping and design, business-process flow-charting and Web site design and publishing. Its image libraries, linking and export capabilities are unmatched. Its creative potential is virtually limitless. And it's an excellent value.
Visio's libraries are crammed full of detailed, vector-based images. Although its base image library consists of items from vendors like Bay Networks, Cabletron Systems, IBM Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co. and 3Com Corp., the meat of its image library comes from the SysDraw Shapes for Visio library extension. The SysDraw extension offers more than 7,000 images from every conceivable vendor. Although the SysDraw libraries are cryptically named, making it somewhat difficult to find the right library the first time, eventually we were able to find every make and model of equipment we needed.
