SmartDraw reviews

Great tool for business analyst activities

Pluspunten:

Can create your mind maps and complex flowchart of any kind with ease. Using it on office desktop and well integrated with Microsoft office suit. Also compatible with google docs which is very helpful

Minpunten:

So i didn't find anything and i will strongly recommend this for pm and business analyst activities.

With SmartDraw, we create unlimited diagrams and designs that generate value.

Opmerkingen: It is a tool that works perfectly in the Cloud, in addition to having a very wide variety of templates to facilitate teamwork, and with multiple import and export mechanisms. SmartDraw certainly is a powerful diagram generator for all kinds of applications, ranging from engineering, marketing, computing, and much more.

Pluspunten:

One of the main advantages and attractions of SmartDraw is its intuitive and clean design, with multiple templates to be used in almost all types of diagrams and designs. In addition, we can save our files to our local storage or use direct integrations with Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, and OneDrive, not to mention the opportunity we have to share the link of our designs. On the other hand, there is a great variety of formats to export and import files, in addition to the one used natively by SmartDraw.

Minpunten:

SmartDraw has not only focused on a platform that generates value in an encapsulated way since it allows empowering collaborative use with third-party integrations such as MS Teams, Confluence, and Jira from Atlassian. This allows it to be widely used in organizations that are based on the generation of new ideas as the key to success in their businesses.

Unstable and Quirky - Danger - Lost Work Zone

Opmerkingen: The only benefit I have received is when I quickly print what I am working on, so that this horribly unstable and unpredictable program will not just lose it and delete even saved work from its memory. When you want to make certain measurements, you will never be able to do so, because it only allows "anchored" points to be measured - not the item or space you wish to measure. It is impossible to scale down their furniture selections/templates because they have it set to scale down the width, when all you want to change is the length. It has been a disappointing waste of time and money.

Pluspunten:

I has little to say for Pros: because it is just as easy to draw boxes without having this program. I learned every feature and applied all of the program's features. It is likely that you could get a beginning design to give to someone, as a simple floor plan, if that is what you need. But be sure to print it to preserve your work after each little change.

Minpunten:

Customer service is practically nil and there is no "help" or troubleshooting. If you try to contact them for support, you have to wait and see if they will send you an email the next day - and they usually won't. If you get the email, it does not remotely address the trouble or offer to talk you through it if their "solution" or instruction is not on point. Really disappointing. There is no auto save unless you are working in the Cloud for this program. Further, it constantly just stops and closes itself - and dumps all of your work during that session, even if you have been saving! So, then the hours of work are permanently lost - no kidding, EVEN if you pushed save. If you use it, you must remember to save, save, save - after each little line or inclusion and then print. Then close the program before its instability causes it to just close itself as to the design you are working on. If you don't close it down, you will lose all of your work. Then - get this - when you reopen a file after it has decided to shut down, it says that there is a recovered work file and asks if you want to open it and recover it. If you say "yes" the program shuts down again, over and over and over. It is so unstable that it can't hold up to the tasks it claims to be performing with its features, such as layers, measurements, inserting photos, etc.

SmartDraw: Streamline Your Diagramming Tasks with These Pros and Cons

Opmerkingen: It is a powerful diagramming tool that can help users to create professional-quality diagrams quickly and easily.

Pluspunten:

SmartDraw has a user-friendly interface. The platform offers a range of templates and tools that make it easy to create a variety of diagrams, including flowcharts, organizational charts, and floor plans, without requiring extensive design experience or technical expertise. SmartDraw has extensive library of symbols and shapes, which can be easily customized to fit specific design needs. This allows users to create professional-looking diagrams with minimal effort, while still maintaining full control over the design process. SmartDraw offers a range of integration options also.

Minpunten:

This platform may not be ideal for creating highly specialized or custom diagrams that require a high degree of precision or specific design elements. SmartDraw may require some initial investment of time and effort to master, particularly for users who are not familiar with diagramming software.

High quality and professional looks drawing software

Opmerkingen: SmartDraw is helping businesses quickly and easily create professional-looking visuals for presentations, documents, reports, and websites. The benefits enterprises have realized from SmartDraw include increased efficiency, cost savings, and improved communication, with visuals helping to communicate complex information more simply.

Pluspunten:

The most impactful features of SmartDraw include an extensive library of templates and shapes, drag-and-drop editing, real-time collaboration, integration with Microsoft Office, and compatibility with Windows and MacOS. The product is relatively easy to use, with a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface, which makes it simple to create diagrams with minimal effort. Integration with existing business processes is also straightforward since the product works with most existing file formats.

Minpunten:

Features that I feel are missing or could be improved: Better support for text orientations when editing diagrams, Ability to customize the interface based on user preference.Aspects of the product that are difficult to use: Tooltips are not always clear, making it difficult to understand how to use certain features; navigation can be confusing, especially when trying to find specific parts, Customizing diagrams can be time-consuming, especially when using the software for the first time. Integration with existing business processes should be easy with SmartDraw, but depending on the complexity of the business processes, this may become difficult.

SmartDraw a powerful tool for diagramming, drawing, layout and more.

Opmerkingen: It is perfect for drawing projects, has a wide range of templates that make it easier for you to work and all the types of diagrams you need (at least it is for my IT area), it has a desktop and online version that allows you to work in any place, it is very useful.

Pluspunten:

SmartDraw is a very complete plication for all types of diagrams that you need, has great virtues with respect to Visio that can be considered the number one in the market or at least used, when you need to diagram a project from the basic algorithm to the more complex gantt diagrams , this tool is very useful, it makes you much easier in work (in my experience much easier to use than Visio) the connection between diagrams is simpler, since finishing a diagram makes it much easier to do the following, has a wide range of options and templates that help you in the creation process, contributing to the development of diagrams for systems that you are going to develop, a very useful tool for projects where you need to correctly capture what you want to develop, use it, try it for yourself.

Minpunten:

Its main against is the price, the full version is very expensive although it allows you to enjoy the desktop version and its cost is very high, I think you should download it to compete more in the market. The speed of the online version sometimes fluctuates negatively, it is a mistake that must be corrected.

They lock you OUT without a subscription

Opmerkingen: I'm frustrated and angry that I'm not able to use my OWN WORK, or even VIEW it!

Pluspunten:

Loaded quick, and easy to use. But this is NOT why I'm writing this review... The review is for the CONS!

Minpunten:

I liked this product until the license expired, THEN I couldn't even access my work, I had to PAY to see MY OWN WORK. They didn't limit the software, they locked you out and away from your work. For this reason I WILL NOT USE this software any longer. I will not have MY WORK held captive by a software producer. This software is CRAP if this is how they treat their clients who spent a years subscription, only to find all the work they did in a year is no longer accessible.

Great for new users to computer aided designs.

Pluspunten:

I tried Smartdraw for the first time in 2016 and I was impressed by the ease of use ; I understood the major workings around this program in a matter of days.I have used Smart draw for Gantt style charting , simple drawings ,including floor drawings when I moved to my new home a while back. Smartdraw provides users with a variety of modules ,making it a program which can be leveraged by different professionals in different career fields.

Minpunten:

Smartdraw doesn't allow for remote collaboration like what I have come to expect from months of recently embracing Lucidchart. I have also found out that when creating Gantt charts with this program , I am limited in the number of coloumns I am allowed to use.

SmartDraw a great tool for everyone

Opmerkingen: I really like this software, it was absolutely useful.

Pluspunten:

I really like the differents tools that this software provide us, I'm a lawyer and for some diagrams this software let me have a great experience, I really like it, this software it's absolutely great

Minpunten:

This software was so good, it doesn't have things I don't like but I think that the interface can be more friendly and easy to understand for new users

A great software for creating charts

Opmerkingen: A great 1 year plus experience using smartdraw for designs and all. Still have some certain features to try out and I will definitely do that from now on

Pluspunten:

First of all, I love the software layout and its design. I usually use smartdraw to create flowcharts, simple electric circuit diagrams.Well designed Inbuilt templates are available for users and tools to help the user design templates from scratch

Minpunten:

Although there are some features that I haven't tried yet, the rest are working just fine for me

Frustratingly buggy, and bad tech support.

Opmerkingen: Easily the most frustrating software that I have to use. I am unfortunately not aware of any other options in that price range that have the simplicity of interface and the features I need. This software would be great if it worked and if customer support wasn't abysmal.

Pluspunten:

The interface would be great if it worked. At the price, it would be a great value, if it worked.

Minpunten:

1. Many, many bugs. In particular, things often move when they shouldn't, and saving your work never works like you expect it to. In particular, if you save a project, via the "save" button, then "save as" another file, the work that was "saved" on the original is lost. They refuse to acknowledge this bug, but, over the phone, they did explain to me how to use templates, which gives a decent workaround for this bug, for me. Which brings me to: 2. When you contact customer support via email they are absurdly unhelpful. The last time I sent a bug report in, I included step by step instructions for reproducing the bug. Every single reply I received had nothing to do with the bug. I continued to ask "could you reproduce this bug on your end?", a question that they never answered once. Bugs are not a thing that customer service seems to be allowed to talk about, which is unfortunate, given how full of bugs this software is.

Not a Replacement for Visio/Project

Opmerkingen: Not many, we tried hard to use it for our intended purposes for 6-12 months. Then we gave up. Now we use it infrequently when we need to create a simple visual. The mind mapping tool is ok - but free tools online are just as good if not better.

Pluspunten:

This product ships with a lot of prebuilt content, templates that can let you create quick and easy diagrams, visuals, etc for presentations.

Minpunten:

We bought this thinking it might be a lower cost replacement for Visio and that we'd be able to use the Project Planning template for our PM needs. Neither turned out to be true. This tool will give you a good variety of templates, but if you want to move something manually... forget it. Don't like how the basic flowchart looks or need to make room for a 3rd branch? You'll go back to Visio after a month. Project plans look create, but when you need to update 1 date good luck. ugh. This had a lot of potential but it just isn't flexible enough for real use cases in our experience.

Good when it doesn't crash

Opmerkingen: Cannot recommend to others due to the continual crashing. When it works it does a good job. Customer support were good when I contacted them several times in the first year. They gave me a program to remove the software and a link to re-install each time, sometimes worked well for a few times but then the crashing started again. Interested to hear others still experience the same problem with the latest version.

Pluspunten:

Good when it works, good symbol library, versatile

Minpunten:

Have the desktop version for drawing floor plans only and have persevered with it for 2 years (version 2017). It regularly crashes on me as others have detailed. If it crashes once you may as well start again as it will crash continually after that. For the price I paid I was hoping for much better and feel ripped off.

It is the special program for the realization of flow diagrams, with a large number of cliparts

Pluspunten:

SmartDraw comes with many types of templates that include flow charts, bar graphs and charts. If you do not find a template that you like, you can create a customized template that suits your project, Photos, and images. Add photos and images to the document with the import to lump sum, copy and paste the commands. You can also import images and photos from your digital camera, and then manipulate them inside SmartDraw until you have the effect you want. Each template comes with a library of shapes and symbols, to use these shapes and symbols, simply drag them to your worksheet and place them where you want. You can add textures and photos to further improve the document. It works well with programs such as Microsoft Office, Visio, Microsoft Project, SharePoint, and PowerPoint. And so you can export the mind map to any of these programs to be able to share. You can export the file with just one click of your mouse. The following graphics formats available to you: JPEG, PNG, BMP, TIFF, and GIF. Export the file to the web or send it anywhere in the world

Minpunten:

It consumes abundant resources if your machine is slow it can become tedious to work, besides its installation is slow

Love the mind mapping feature!

Opmerkingen: I've been using SmartDraw for about two months as a tool to help manage my projects. What I love about SmartDraw is the Mind Mapping feature, which allows me to create tasks in a visually friendly way that mimics brainstorming. It's been very helpful to me when starting out a project. I also really like the way we can add owners to each task in the same view. And the best part is, the information will get transferred to a Gantt chart or a timeline with the click of a button. Once you've filled in the details, you can push the information to a powerpoint slide to share with key stakeholders, again, with just a click of a button. There are many more features within SmartDraw that I am intrigued about but haven't had the opportunity to explore yet. I plan on playing with SmartDraw more once my current projects slow down.

Pluspunten:

Well organized and very easy to move data to other Microsoft Office applications (including Microsoft Project) or Adobe .pdf. There are also some great graphics and geographic maps in the library for use with presentations, flyers, floorplans, etc.

Minpunten:

In the Gantt chart, there is a limited number of columns that can be used.

For those who are Visual Planners

Pluspunten:

I was a programmer in the 70's and flowcharts and diagrams were how we designed applications and programs. SmartDraw was a great tool to get ideas "on paper" without having to draw it out, erase changes and store the diagrams in a file folder. It was a great transition to a digital format.

Minpunten:

No tool is a "perfect fit" for everyone and doesn't solve every need but this fills the diagram need nicely.

Professional 2D Floor Plans at affordable price

Opmerkingen: Imported 2D flow into network management system.

Pluspunten:

2D Floor feature . I used to implement software monitoring solution at customer site. Very often I have been asked to insert as background of the network map the floor plan of the building to easily determine the physical location of the network devices.

Minpunten:

At time I used it there was not SmartDraw Cloud now available. This is perfect for small/individual business.

Offers Easy to Use Templates with Professional Looking Results

Opmerkingen: This is a program that allows the easy and quick development of charts and graphs that can be incorporated into our client proposals.

Pluspunten:

The software offers a great assortment of templates, including charts and graphs, that I quickly develop and use for client proposals. The results are always sharp and professional looking.

Minpunten:

The only drawback is that the software works with my Windows Desktop computer but I can not use the software on my Mac.

Can easily create organizational charts

Opmerkingen: Create Organizational charts, for the most part, with ease.

Pluspunten:

I love that I can set up an organizational chart fairly easily and make it as large as I'd like to.

Minpunten:

Wish there were more printing options for a large chart. Though it's fairly user friendly, it also has some challenges. I wish it was a little easier.

A wonderful software to generate a Process Flow Diagram and others things

Opmerkingen: great software

Pluspunten:

Very well to make Process Flow Diagram which is very important in any industry to manage process and design data.

Minpunten:

Sometimes dows not work very well. You cannot open files between different version, in others words if you make any work at x-version after you cannot open the same file in another version which is a bad aspect because must be compatible between version.

SmartDraw helped us to remap our warehouse getting a product out much quicker

Pluspunten:

We used SmartDraw to reorganize our warehouse. It was quick to drop in wall dimensions, racking, conveyor belts and obstructions like support beams. Everything is pre-rendered and you input the dimensions of your equipment to customize it. It also allows for colors to be added to help in identifying different racking styles or belt types.

Minpunten:

We use the web-version and for the size of our warehouse it can slow the system down and make it difficult for making a quick adjustment to be made. Something simple like moving a row of racking can take several minutes instead of seconds. I used the trial PC version and did not have these issues, so it appears to be a web-only issue.

Used for org and flowcharts

Pluspunten:

This was the first software I found for flowcharts where there were enough features to work quickly and I didn't run into any problems where I couldn't achieve something. Objects + lines stay connected and the tools actually help you make the chart quickly and easily in an organized manner. Many other programs expect you to do a lot manually like placing the line which wastes time and is frustrating.

Minpunten:

Was not impressed with the styling options for the charts.

It gives us the ease of choosing when creating powerful and flexible diagrams that have so many tool

Pluspunten:

We help to create diagrams and the color of the sea, the technicians and the professional results. And so you can create immediate maps.

Minpunten:

You can prove the fault for seven days, from then on its use requires an individual license. there are things to improve

A great alternative to MS Visio and other "flowchart apps"

Pluspunten:

I have used this product with several customers migrating from the old ISO9000:2008 to the process approach in the new ISO9000:2015.

Minpunten:

Awkward use of cloud storage versus desktop storage. File folders are not obvious in the new version.

Incredible tool that allows you to easily create a variety of flow diagram designs.

Pluspunten:

Easy to use, it has a great variety of modes and modeling adapting to any type of objective that we want to define or design. Concept maps can be made. You can create all kinds of graphics that you can then use in your presentations by exporting to PowerPoint. It has 70 types of visualizations / diagrams, examples and templates

Minpunten:

It consumes abundant resources, its installation is very slow and it is very complex so you need to know it to be able to use.