Flow Chart Symbols

The Flowcharts are incredibly useful and popular tool used in science, business, software development, analytics, engineering, marketing, manufacturing, administration, architecture, government, politics, and many other fields thanks to a variety of existing types of flowcharts. A Flowchart is a visual graphical representation of the process, algorithm, or the set of steps taken for problem's solution. Widely used for designing, visualizing and documenting simple and complex processes and programs, they effectively help to understand the process and to find easier the flaws if they are. Each flowchart type supposes the use of its own set of notations for drawing corresponding diagram, which includes the symbols of process, decision, data, document, data base, termination, initiation processes, processing loops, conditions, etc. It is easily design a Flowchart using the special professional flowchart maker - ConceptDraw PRO diagram software with numerous predesigned flow chart symbols grouped in libraries of Flowcharts solution from ConceptDraw Solution Park.

Basic Flowchart Symbols and Meaning

Flowcharts are the best for visually representation the business processes and the flow of a custom-order process through various departments within an organization. ConceptDraw PRO diagramming and vector drawing software extended with Flowcharts solution offers the full set of predesigned basic flowchart symbols which are gathered at two libraries: Flowchart and Flowcharts Rapid Draw. Among them are: process, terminator, decision, data, document, display, manual loop, and many other specific symbols. The meaning for each symbol offered by ConceptDraw gives the presentation about their proposed use in professional Flowcharts for business and technical processes, software algorithms, well-developed structures of web sites, Workflow diagrams, Process flow diagram and correlation in developing on-line instructional projects or business process system. Use of ready flow chart symbols in diagrams is incredibly useful - you need simply drag desired from the libraries to your document and arrange them in required order. There are a few serious alternatives to Visio for Mac, one of them is ConceptDraw PRO. It is one of the main contender with the most similar features and capabilities.

Flowchart Definition

Flowchart definition - A Flowchart is a diagram that graphically represents the structure of the system, the flow of steps in a process, algorithm, or the sequence of steps and decisions for execution a process or solution a problem. For depiction the steps there are used specific shapes and graphic symbols which are linked by lines and directional arrows. The main standard shapes are rectangle or box, rounded box, diamond, circle. A Flowchart is a convenient way to observe the follow the process from beginning to end, it lets improve the work of process, highlight the key elements and detach not essential or even excessive steps. The Flowcharts can represent different levels of detail: High-Level Flowchart, Detailed Flowchart, and Deployment or Matrix Flowchart. They are incredibly useful for programmers when developing the programs of any complexity and on any high level language. Create your own Flowcharts using the ConceptDraw PRO diagramming and vector drawing software and powerful tools of Flowcharts solution from "Diagrams" area.

Types of Flowcharts

A Flowchart is a graphical representation of process, algorithm, workflow or step-by-step solution of the problem. It shows the steps as boxes of various kinds and connects them by arrows in a defined order depicting a flow. There are twelve main Flowchart types: Basic Flowchart, Business Process Modeling Diagram (BPMN), Cross Functional Flowchart, Data Flow Diagram (DFD), IDEF (Integrated DEFinition) Flowchart, Event-driven Process Chain (EPC) Diagram, Influence Diagram (ID), Swimlane Flowchart, Process Flow Diagram (PFD), Specification and Description Language (SDL) Diagram, Value Stream Mapping, Workflow Diagram. Using the Flowcharts solution from the Diagrams area of ConceptDraw Solution Park you can easy and quickly design a Flowchart of any of these types. This solution offers a lot of special predesigned vector symbols for each of these widely used notations. They will make the drawing process of Flowcharts much easier than ever. Pay also attention for the included collection of ready Flowchart examples, samples and quick-start templates. This is business process improvement tools. If you are looking for MS Visio for your Mac, then you are out of luck, because it hasn't been released yet. However, you can use Visio alternatives that can successfully replace its functions. ConceptDraw PRO is an alternative to MS Visio for Mac that provides powerful features and intuitive user interface for the same.

Entity Relationship Diagram Symbols

The semantic modeling method nowadays is successfully applied in database structure design. It is effective method of modeling the data structures, which is based on the meaning of these data. As a tool of semantic modeling, there are used different types of Entity-Relationship Diagrams. Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) is applied to visually and clearly represent a structure of a business database. The main components of ERDs are: entity, relation and attributes. An entity is a class of similar objects in the model, each entity is depicted in the form of rectangle and has the name expressed by a noun. Relation is shown in the form of non-directional line that connects two entities. There are several notation styles used for ERDs: information engineering style, Chen style, Bachman style, Martin Style. The Entity Relationship Diagram symbols used for professional ERD drawing are predesigned by professionals and collected in the libraries of the Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) solution for ConceptDraw PRO software.

Flowchart design. Flowchart symbols, shapes, stencils and icons

A flowchart is a type of diagram which represents an algorithm, process or workflow, displays the steps as boxes of various kinds and depicts their order by connecting them with arrows. Any business graphic document will be more colorful and understandable if will use professional-looking and visual diagrams and flowcharts. Flowchart design gives versatile presenting and explaining of the process. ConceptDraw PRO flowchart software enhanced with Flowcharts solution helps effectively make Flowchart Design. Use of predesigned flowchart symbols and bright color palette offers a fresh view and favorably distinguishes the flowcharts designed in ConceptDraw PRO from the black and white flowcharts on a paper. Preferably to use no more than three or four colors and apply identical for the same shape types. The best flowchart design can be achieved by starting with Flowchart template, or any of suitable ready examples or samples offered in ConceptDraw STORE, open one of them and enter the proper text into each Flowchart shape. Each symbol of the flowchart has a definition that can't be changed. This means that all flowcharts shapes can be grouped in according to their meaning. Users with ConceptDraw PRO flowchart software can style groups of symbols with close definitions by color sets chosen from complementary palette. Almost all workflows can be depicted as a flowchart. Colored diagrams are more light for perception of the certain information, this is part of flowchart design. Bright colors need to be used in the key points of Decision symbols, to focus attention on their importance for whole process flow.

Flowchart

The Flowcharts are widespread in various fields and include the multitude of types. They are dedicated to representation the algorithms, processes, workflows of any complexity in a clear and intuitive format. The Flowcharts are commonly used in software development as a visual tool for illustration algorithms and logic of computer programs, in business for illustration business scenarios, in education, and so on. For drawing the Flowchart are used the special object blocks, among them rectangle or box used to represent an activity or step, rounded box or oval to depict Start / End, diamond to represent the decision point (involves the branching yes/no), circle used to represent the point of connection, parallelogram to represent the Input / Output, and some others. With ConceptDraw PRO including Flowcharts solution it is easy to create professional-looking Flowchart diagrams of any complexity and any degree of detailing. Succeed in drawing the Flowcharts using quick-start templates, predesigned samples and extensive libraries of ready-made flowchart symbols, blocks and icons.

Examples of Flowcharts, Org Charts and More

ConceptDraw PRO covers a broad spectrum of business graphics categories and offers at ConceptDraw STORE enormous online collection of pictorial examples and samples for different thematics and application areas. It is a plentiful source of inspiration and wonderful examples of professionally designed diagrams, flowcharts, UML diagrams, organizational charts, databases, ERDs, network diagrams, business charts, different thematic charts, schematics, infographics and plans developed specially for knowledge workers, engineers, managers, businessmen, marketing specialists, analytics, scientists, students, professors, journalists and also for a large number of other people that every day use various diagrams and drawings in their work and life activity. Each of these examples is a real art, all they are well thought-out and designed without efforts with help of powerful tools of ConceptDraw PRO software. ConceptDraw examples display all variety of tasks, possibilities and results that ConceptDraw Product Line lets achieve fast and easy. ConceptDraw is one of the best Visio alternatives for Mac. It open all Visio formats like .vsdx, .vss, .vdx files and allows you to export files to Visio formats.

Technical Flow Chart

Flow chart is a diagrammatic representation of an algorithm and essential part of planning the system. Flow charts are widely used in technical analysis and programming for easy writing programs and explaining them to others. So, one of the most popular type of flow charts is Technical Flow Chart. Technical Flow Chart can be drawn by pencil on the paper, but it will be easier to use for designing a special software. ConceptDraw PRO diagramming and vector drawing software extended with Flowcharts Solution from the "Diagrams" Area of ConceptDraw Solution Park will be useful for this goal.

Cross-Functional Flowchart

Use of Cross-Functional Flowchart is a clear way of showing each team member’s responsibilities and how processes get shared or transferred between different responsible people, teams and departments. Use the best flowchart maker ConceptDraw PRO with a range of standardized cross-functional flowchart symbols to create the Cross-Functional Flowcharts simply and to visualize the relationship between a business process and the functional units responsible for that process. To draw the most quickly Cross-Functional Flowcharts, Cross Functional Process Maps, or Cross Functional Process Flow Diagrams, start with a Cross-functional flowchart samples and templates from ConceptDraw Solution Park. The ConceptDraw Arrows10 and RapidDraw technologies will be also useful for you in drawing. ConceptDraw PRO supports designing both types - horizontal and vertical Cross-functional flowcharts. A vertical layout makes the accents mainly on the functional units while a horizontal layout - on the process. If you need a Visio alternative in Mac OS X, try ConceptDraw PRO. Its interface is very intuitive and it’s actually much easier to use than Visio, yet somehow it’s just as powerful if not more so. ConceptDraw PRO performs professional quality work and seamless Visio interaction.