UML recommendations?

Anyone have any experience in UML? Recommendations for UML software? Anyone use free UML software with success? I want to use this to design before I start coding:D

I should state that I don't want to use a UML tool for code generation - only for diagramming, etc.

Also - do any of you use UML? Thoughts?

I like Microsoft Visio. I create my UML models and object models using it.

New Microsoft Visio which comes with VS.net is very good, also you have Rational Rose, I think you can download it from www.rational.com (trial version). If you want to use UML you must spend a lot of time for planning and designing, then coding should be much faster.

regard j

What version of Visio 2002 - (i.e. Standard, Professional,etc.) Also, I was under the impression that Rational Rose was only for Java?

i have used rational rose over a year ago and it had support for VB6 with it.

I don't think it should matter what language you are planning to use when designing OOP software with UML as all the principles are the same aren't they?
Get the design done, then choose the language?
(or as i do, choose vb6/vb.net and then start designing!)

Like nswan said, when use UML for software development coding language is unessential, cause UML is general concept. Rational Rose have possibility to generate code in C++, Java, VB.

regard j

Can anyone suggest a book or reference that I can use to learn UML? Sad to say I don't have a whole lot of experience with it :-)

Thanks!

professional design patterns in vb.net
wrox
- this is a great book not only about UML but it has a UML primer in the appendix which is quite good.