Many people want to know of the best free Visio alternative open source software for Mac. Visio is Microsoft’s product. Dedicated to diagramming, it brings tremendous benefits to IT professionals who use it for pretty much anything, from program workflows to process flows and network architecture. Given its functionalities and capabilities, even engineers and constructors who work on building roads or mapping terrains can use it successfully.
So what’s the catch with it? First of all, it comes with a hefty price tag that home users barely afford. Even if you would afford to pay for the fancy Microsoft Visio software, chances are you wouldn’t need all those expensive features. And since there are so many other decent Visio replacements on the market, most of them even free Visio software alternatives; why not look around a little bit? In this article, we’re going to show you five more-than-decent free Visio open source software that would make a great replacement Visio for Mac and Windows.
Here they are: LucidChart, a web-based alternative to Microsoft Visio When choosing to work with LucidChart, you just move your work online. You don’t need to create any account with them, as you simply access the website and start your drawings like Visio diagrams. What’s even more exciting is that you can have a small team working on the same project at the same time. It’s a Visio alternative free that is worth testing out. You can use a dedicated drawing interface, where you simply drag and drop items to create whatever diagram you want. Plus, you can import or export Visio vdx files extremely easy, if you create an account.
Free Visio Viewer is a free Visio file viewer for the Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux operating systems. It is available in the form of an online version and as an extension for the Google Chrome web browser.
The only drawback users reported so far is that it doesn’t have that specific categorization of shapes for specific areas, be it engineering, networking, and so on. Overall, it’s a great free flowcharting software.
Diagramly, a web-based alternative to LucidChart If you love the idea of taking your work online and you’d like to explore further than LucidChart, Diagramly is yet another free open source option to take into account. This mind-mapping and diagramming software is extremely responsive and it comes with an interface that even a rookie would sort out easily. All the right tools are displayed in the left column, while all the drawing functions are sitting on the right column. Similarly to LucidChart, signing up for an account is not mandatory. Whatever you work on, you can save it on your computer when you’re done. The file format will be XML. At the same time, you can always come back online, access the file you saved locally, and continue editing it over the web.
OpenOffice Draw, an open source alternative to Microsoft Visio OpenOffice Draw, just like LibreOffice Draw, is an open source drawing software and one of Visio’s direct competitors and is a great Visio alternative that’s free. As an all-purpose drawing, charting and diagramming tool, it comes with the added benefit of grouping. You simply add objects to your project and then decide which ones you want to group. Whatever changes you will make to a group, they will apply to every single item within that group. As opposed to LucidChart, this one doesn’t work with Visio vdx files. Its standard file format is XML, but you can export your work as SWF Flash files as well.
Pencil Project, an open source alternative for all platforms The beauty of PencilProject is that it comes with extremely flexible options. Just as you can learn from their, there are different builds of Pencils, tailored for the needs of the most popular operating systems: Linux, Windows, or Mac OSX. And for those who prefer to stick to an internet browser, downloading a special extension for Firefox will prove quite handy. Their goal is to make diagram creation accessible to all kinds of users, from experts to newbie.
With this in mind and judging by everything from above, it’s quite hard not to take this option into account. Dia, a sort of Visio alternative Dia is another open source to the Vizio software, this time with an interface that will instantly make you think of Microsoft Visio alternative.
![Visio like software for free Visio like software for free](/uploads/1/2/5/3/125382049/848636446.png)
Even its features are somewhat similar to Visio, whether you’re trying to generate UML diagrams, to create flowcharts and entity relationship diagrams or network architectures and processes. Whatever you work in Dia will be saved in its dedicated.dia format. Nevertheless, just like LucidChart, it also supports the Microsoft Visio program with vdx format. Moreover, Dia lets you export diagrams in a wide range of other formats, so chances are you’re going to love this feature.
. 4 Best Visio Viewer for Mac 1.
Cisdem Document Reader is designed to read Windows-based file and documents on Mac OS, including Visio, WPD, WPS, XPS, and PDF. DocumentReader provides different viewing styles, such as toolbar consisting view mode, searching pane, page navigation, zoom, rotate, save, copy, etc. The most important is DocumentReader guarantee the quality of the file, which makes the file looks exactly as what it were. Pros:. View multiple visio files or other files the same time within the program;. Support multiple input formats;.
Extract images from files;. Convert files to PDF, or other formats;. Directly print the files within the program;.
Zoom, rotate, bookmark files, etc. Cons:. Cannot Edit Files within the Program 2. Lucidchart Visio Viewer Mac As the Google Chrome and Firefox extension, provides a great way to view Visio files on a Mac, which allows users to, VSDX, or VDX files. If you only want to view the visio files on mac and don’t need to edit nor save the file, you can go to to add the extension to Chrome, then open visio files with this free web tool. But if you want to edit, create or save the visio file, you need to sign up or pay for the service.
Pros:. No download needed. Free or Paid service is available Cons:. View Visio files in read-only mode. A user feeds back 'It stopped working after two files'. Safari is not supported. Nektony Mac Visio Viewer allows users to open.VSD,.VDX,.VSDX MS Visio document formats created with MS Visio 2000 – 2013 versions.
Just as Cisdem DocumentReader, it also ensures that texts on Mac OS X will be displayed in the same way as original format when they were created. Though its official website claims this tool is free to use, it is a paid program with 5-day free trial. Pros:.
Support Visio 2000 – 2013 versions. Cons:. Cannot batch view files.
Feature-limited 4. Lawbox VSD Viewer Pro for Mac is a powerful Mac Visio viewer to help you to view Microsoft Visio VSD file on your Mac. It can read.vsd,.vsdx,.vsx,.vss and.vssx documents; and can save as PDF or image files. Pros:. Users can save Visio files as PDF or image files.
Cons:. Requires Mac OS-X 10.7 or above. It is not an editor. Why Cisdem Document Reader is the Best Visio Viewer for Mac?
I have tried all these recommended Visio viewers for Mac and make a Comparison on them to see which provides the best function, specification and value for money. In consequence, Cisdem DocumentReader presents the best performance. Then, why it is the best useful one?
I will show you the reasons below. Is absolutely a perfect Visio viewer for Mac users. For giving users a fantastic reading experience, and present the visio file contents as exactly the same as it is, even its extended features allow user to convert, print and extract files as needed. Compared to other Visio Viewer for Mac, Cisdem Document Reader has many merits:. Easy to use, just drag & drop it into app. Fast scrolling, never be lagged with the pagination. Keyword Search at the top-right corner supports quickly find a word, character, or phrase anywhere.
Lets you open VISIO, WPD, WPS, XPS, OXPS, DjVu, PDF and Winmail.dat files on Mac. Extracts images, print and convert the documents into PDF, RTFD, Text, JPEG, etc. Supports multi-tab viewing to switch between multiple Visio files easily. Reads files on Mac with no additional software required. Of course, there is no perfect thing in the world.
Cisdem Document Reader inevitably contains the demerit that it only supports Mac OS X 10.8 or later. How to Use Cisdem Document Reader to View Visio Files on Mac? Download Cisdem Visio Viewer for Mac and install it on your Mac. Cisdem Document Reader offers a free trial to download, in this case, you needn’t worry about spending money on the program you still haven't tested. View Visio files on Mac After running the software, you can directly open vsd files on mac by adding them or drag & drop them into the Visio Viewer for Mac. All of the contents will be displayed in front of you. Worth to mention, if you want to read other type of files, you can also view them by using Cisdem Document Reader at the same time.
Convert Visio Files to other formats on Mac (optional) If necessary, you can print your Visio files, or you can save them as PDF, Text, JPEG, PNG, TIFF, BMP, GIF files so that you can view them on other device. Everything has two sides, each of Visio Viewer for Mac has its own advantages and disadvantages.
As for which one is the best Visio viewer Mac, users will have their own judgment. More Related Articles You May Like. Between times we get some Visio (VSD/VSDX/VDX) files on Mac and need to open them on our devices.
However, these files can only be viewed in Windows system, then what can we do to open Visio (VSD/VSDX/VDX) files on Mac? This article will recommend two methods for Mac users and also provides the details about how to open Visio (VSD/VSDX/VDX) files on Mac. Although XPS/OXPS were developed to compete with Adobe, PDF is still the industry standard now and XPS/OXPS are rather rarely used. In this case, converting XPS/OXPS to PDF is necessary and inevitable. Although Mac users can directly open PDF file by using Apple's Preview, XPS file is not be accepted.
How to open XPS file on Mac? There are two methods to do that. This article will share those two methods for Mac users.