NetDepict Review: Visio network drawing software

Whether you are a network engineer, network manager, network consultant, or a network enthusiast, you have surely encountered the need of representing an IT/network environment. I still remember customers drawing their networks on pieces of paper, sometimes they even scan it to send it by email.

Why is it so complex to create a good Visio diagram? It is time to get acquainted with a software which provides a means of drawing your IT environment, inexpensively and effectively.

Enters NetDepict!

NetDepict automatically analyses the network data, depicts relationships between devices, and provides you with an interactive and intuitive environment. It is an easy to use software that can be run on every Windows machine with Microsoft Visio installed.

How it works

NetDepict enables you to draw Visio snapshots of any network you manage, no matter how many devices you have. It provides you the means to automatically generate accurate and precise drawings, providing you with the necessary perspective to any kind of network environment. It will also help you to understand your customer’s networks, and enable you to compare a current situation and schema to the older one. It also enables you to control the degree of details presented, and combine the Visio data with other MS Office functionalities (like editing text, font, size).

You can make a Visio drawing of your topology (above), and save it as a .vsd file. The following picture represents just a segment of the upper topology, as opened in Visio.

Also, you can have a list of devices in one .csv file, and a list of their adjacencies in another one, and then import those files:

NetDepict will do the rest, that is, depict your network automatically.

RouterFreak’s NetDepict Review

We wanted to put NetDepic under test, and see how it can help a network engineer in the challenge of quickly draw a network diagram.

As it allows you to define the scope of the network that you want to collect the data from, you can easily create a network drawing on the basis of just an IP address. Namely, its SNMP Data Capture functionality enables you to enter data, based on which NetDepict pulls the device and relationship data from your real network, and makes a network drawing.

Upon clicking the OK button, you should see the following window, which shows that NetDepict is processing the collected data:

It will then ask you if you want to generate a network drawing:

As already said, you can make Visio drawing by clicking the Drawing option, and then open this same topology in Visio and customize it based on your preferences:

RouterFreak’s verdict

If you need a tool that will enable you to document your network, and make it more personalized and concise, you should definitely consider doing it with NetDepict. It is an affordable and intuitive tool to create network drawings in just a few clicks.

NetDepict is priced at $65 USD, and can be purchased at the following link.

That price also includes an unlimited lifetime support. In case you are not satisfied with NetDepict within the first 60 days of buying it, you can get the 100% of your money back.

Considering the fact that the price is reasonable, and after you pay you get a tool which enables you to draw your network quickly and then present it to your colleagues, manager or even customers, we can only encourage you to give it a try.

If you are a Linux user like me, we will need to disappoint you. Unfortunately, the Linux version of this product still does not exist.

To learn more about the NetDepict network documentation tool, view the following product page for more information. Also, watch this short video to find out NetDepict basic capabilities:

Till next time!