Build PlantUML environment on Mac using brew

Abstract

Hello everybody it’s me candle.
In this article, I would like to build a plantUML environment which can make UML easily on Mac.
I have been used starUML for making UML. plantUML seems to be much more useful than that.

Precondition

You already use brew.

Check java version

I think that java is already installed in your mac pc.
PlantUML can be run with mac default java.
So you launch terminal app and check the java version with the below command.

java -version

Probably it can be work in java version around 1.8.x .

Install graphviz

graphviz is a graph creation tool.
It is useful when writing graphs mainly handling nodes and lines.
plantUML also use it when draw a graph. let’s install it.

brew install graphviz

Install plantUML

Since plantUML also exsist in brew packages, you can install it easily.

brew install plantuml

After installation, you would type plantuml -v

plantuml -v

ok

Hello plantUML

Let’s draw a UML.
Create uml file in a temporary folder.

touch hello.uml

Open the hell.uml with your favorite editor and write it.

@startuml
Bob -> Alice : hello
@enduml

Save it.
Run this command on terminal.

plantuml hello.uml

Then a png image file is created.

See the hello.png.
UML is drawn successfully.

Conclusion

UML is a really useful tool to carry out projects smoothly.