Huh - if you work in this domain - how is Visio very expensive? It's a few hundred dollars for things that save you tens and hundreds of work. It also has an unbelievably rich extensibility model - almost too complex.
The bigger issue is a) it doesn't do many of the things that we as architecture and design work requires - declarative rules (Component A --> connects to --> Component B) - enforce this rule without my having to worry about arrow drawing b) Version management c) Visio's default of a printed page as Canvas is incredibly cumbersome - we want big canvases in which we can zoom in / out liberally for large diagrams (hundreds of components).
It's more a question that it's not really an architecture tool for large systems. It's a general purpose tool that we've attempted to manipulate. So it doesn't work well for in-depth uses.
> if you work in this domain - how is Visio very expensive?
Working for a megacorp doesn't mean they shower their people with money for tooling (or anything beneficial, actually). They are incredibly wasteful in some respects, but very seldom in ways that benefit the people working for them, or the work they do for them. In truth, they are a bunch of c*nts that couldn't care less about their people ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
But now I digress, and will get back on topic :P
Also, when I mentioned cost, I meant in general - not just specifically for me in my specific day job. If you're solo-bootstrapping a startup for example, $280-530 might seem relatively expensive for a tool that you will seldom use. Perhaps less of an issue if you're using O365, or the Microsoft Action makes sense for you.
> Visio's default of a printed page as Canvas is incredibly cumbersome - we want big canvases in which we can zoom in / out liberally for large diagrams (hundreds of components).
I don't understand your argument here; the Visio canvas can be whatever size you want - you can even let it auto-expand as needed if you want. I regularly do use it for diagrams of large systems with numerous components, and can zoom in/out just fine.
> It's more a question that it's not really an architecture tool for large systems
I like declarative diagrams very much (versioning is a huge plus too), and have been making much more use of them recently, mainly for UML diagrams. But actually, for large architectural diagrams they can become a sea of text that's difficult to work with. Being able to visualise* things more intuitively can be a bonus.
> It's a general purpose tool
This is one of the things I like about it - I can do architectural diagrams, sequence diagrams (or any kind of UML diagram), process flows, swim lanes, anything really.
Still, it has a gazillion features and capabilities that I'll never use (such as the extensibility you mention), and it can be really fiddly to size and position things just-so. Hence, I think something a little more focussed (like the OP's app, or the likes of draw.io) could be a great alternative.
The bigger issue is a) it doesn't do many of the things that we as architecture and design work requires - declarative rules (Component A --> connects to --> Component B) - enforce this rule without my having to worry about arrow drawing b) Version management c) Visio's default of a printed page as Canvas is incredibly cumbersome - we want big canvases in which we can zoom in / out liberally for large diagrams (hundreds of components).
It's more a question that it's not really an architecture tool for large systems. It's a general purpose tool that we've attempted to manipulate. So it doesn't work well for in-depth uses.