Many of you have asked if I could name some software tools that can be used for drawing Sankey diagrams. So I am compiling a list of programs I have tested, or came across during my research. By no means do I wish to endorse any of these products, however, I do have a favorite, as some of the readers of this blog might have observed already.
I am grouping the list in (1) softwares that are specifically designed to make Sankey diagrams, and (2) other programs that do have Sankey as one of their features, but the main purpose for using the software is different. Time permitting I will do individual pages for the tools, and include my test notes and screenshots. The lists are sorted alphabetically.
Please note: This page is work in progress. This list is to be understood as non-exhaustive! Do you know of any Sankey diagram software not listed here? Let me know
Dedicated Sankey Tools
- drawSankey (Wiki website)
Developed by James Spelling and Germain Augsburger at EPFL in Lausanne. DrawSankey.m draws simple Sankey diagrams in Matlab (input, losses, output). - e!Sankey 2.5 (website)
First released in November 2006, latest version December 2009, a tool by German software firm ifu Hamburg. Version ‘pro’ with Excel interface. This is one of the tools I use for my work, see sample diagrams on this blog. License costs 79 €/149 € (pro). Free 30-day trial version. - S.DRAW 4.x (website)
S.DRAW, originally developed by Austrian company STENUM is now being handled by JKMAS in the US and various distributors in Europe. A single license is 485 US$/405 €. Comes with a hardlock key (dongle). A demo version is available. - Sankey Editor 2008 (website)
A Sankey drawing software by an Austrian company named Stenum. First released in 2005 by LogSim (their website seems dead: website). Single license is 149 €. Demo version available. - Sankey Generator 0.4 (blog)
Result of a student project by Sam Brenner, not intended to be launched commercially. Allows to draw simple inflow/outflow Sankey diagrams like this one. - Sankey Helper 2.4 (website)
A freeware tool by Gabor Doka from Switzerland that allows to draw simple Sankey diagrams in Excel. It was one of the first software for Sankey diagrams available. Last updated in January 2010. - SimSankey (website, in German only)
This small-scale tool by a company named ‘Similar’ from Germany, allows to draw simple top-down-oriented energy diagrams.
Former Sankey diagram software whose fate is unclear
- Sankey 3.1 (no website known)
The fate of this tool is unknown. It was developed and distributed by Fichtner Consulting from Stuttgart, Germany in the late 1990ies. However, no information or screenshots can be found on the web. - Sankey.Vis (website)
From the makers of the interactive Sankey diagram tool at Bauhaus University Weimar. The developers seem to have founded a company in Berlin and I was hoping to see this tool being developed further. Not sure what their plans are. - Yekans (Website)
This software probaly never got beyond the first idea, and a small website. Will try to contact Kieron Green to see what his plans on this project are.
Software with different areas of application, that have some kind of Sankey functionality
- CASAnova (website)
Subtitle: An Educational Software for Energy and Heating Demand, Solar Heat Gains and Overheating Risk in Buildings. This freeware tool allows to enter numerous parameters for a building, and will eventually produce a Sankey diagram of energy flows - eMPlant
eMPlant (part of the UGS Tecnomatix Suite) claims to “Material flow may be visualized in a Sankey chart that, at a glance, shows transport volume in the context of the layout”. I have not verified this information. - GaBi (website)
A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) software for analyzing the environmental impacts of a product. This tool by German maker PE Europe can visualize the flows of material in a life cycle with Sankey diagrams. - HSC Chemistry (website)
A simulation software package for chemical processes by Outotec Research Oy from Finland. “The HSC-Sim module has built-in ‘Sankey diagrams’ to visualize the distribution of the elements and process variables”. - LESOSAI (website)
A software for calculating the heat balance of a building. Developed by the Solar Energy and Building Physics Laboratory at the EPFL in Lausanne, it is marketed by a company E4tech. Sankey diagrams for heat losses in a building can be dispayed. - Pleiades + Comfie (website)
Pleiades + Comfie is a software for energy simulation in builings by a French company named Izuba. Although I haven’t seen any screenshot, it seems to have some kind of Sankey diagram output. - SimaPro (website)
Another LCA software, by PRé Product Ecology Consultants from Amersfoort, Netherlands. The contributions of the individual life cycle phases are displayed in a tree-like Sankey-style graphic. - SIMBA (website)
A simulation software developed by ifak at the University of Magdeburg, Germany. SIMBA was developed to simulate wastewater systems, and also has a Sankey display feature. - STAN 2 (website)
STAN is a software for substance flow analysis, developed by inka software for the University of Technology of Vienna, Austria. It has a feature for displaying flows in their network diagrams as Sankey arrows. Version 2.0 currently released May 2009. - STOAT (website)
A dynamic simulation software solution for waste water treatment plants from Berlin-based consulting firm EnviaTec GmbH. Has a simple Sankey diagram interface, that allows to show, e.g. COD loads. - T*SOL (website)
A software for dynamic simulation of solar thermal systems by Valentin Energiesoftware GmbH in Germany. The energy balance can be displayed as table or as a Sankey flow chart. - Tecnomatix Plant Simulation (website)
This comprehensive plant simulation software package claims that “Material flow may be visualized in a Sankey chart that, at a glance, shows transport volume in the context of the layout”. A Sankey-like diagram is shown in their product brochure. - Umberto (website)
A material flow management and process modeling software by ifu Hamburg GmbH. A display of the flow values in a Sankey diagram has been a feature of this software since version 3.0 (current version is Umberto 5.5). They are also the maker of e!Sankey (see above).
RSS-Feed Entries
November 2nd, 2007 at 12:00 pm
Hi Phineas, very informative and good overview of the Sankey art!
Why not make a table with the different software and the features they have. This would be good information for the user who looks at different sankey softwares.
I have some old sankey diagram from 1930′s if you are intersted. E-mail me!
/M
November 8th, 2007 at 2:08 pm
Thanks Magnus!
I am planning to extend this section on Sankey software tools, however, I haven’t yet decided on the best way to structure the grid to compare functionality of the tools. Also, for some softwares I don’t have demo versions, just information off the web, so I will have to contact the maker first. Please check back again later, to find out how far I have gotten…
Phineas
January 3rd, 2008 at 2:07 am
[...] Sankey Diagram Software list I just found this great list of Sankey-related software from our Phineas over at sankey-diagrams.com. [...]
April 4th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
[...] software with a Sankey diagram that I hadn’t noticed before and only now have added to the list of Sankey Software tools is CASAnova (new house). From what I understand this freeware tool was the result of a research [...]
April 4th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
[...] the Electronics industry is available in its catalogue.http://biz.yahoo.com/iw/080327/0380327.htmlGreat list of software tools for Sankey diagramsSuch a long time I looked for a comparison of Sankey diagram software. Phineas published a list of [...]
September 8th, 2008 at 11:56 am
[...] have added the STOAT model to the list of software tools with Sankey drawing capabilities. Posted by phineas September 8th, 2008 Filed in Samples Tags: CSB, wastewater [...]
October 8th, 2008 at 5:26 pm
[...] edge layout, width of Sankey arrows in curves, etc. Basically all that stuff that developers of professional Sankey software tools have to cope with. Posted by phineas October 8th, 2008 Filed in Uncategorized [...]
December 4th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
Hi Phineas,
very nice and informative blog about sankeys! Thx. Are you aware of any sankey software running unter Linux (Ubuntu)?
Yours
Chris
December 10th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
@Chris
I am not aware of any Sankey diagram software running on Linux machines.
PHineas
December 26th, 2008 at 4:11 am
i need sankey sofdware , ware can i find it.
guatemala
January 5th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
@ Daniel Alvarez
Daniel, there is a link to the website for each tool in the list above. You should be able to find information on acquiring a product on the respective maker’s website.
Daniel, en la lista de programas arriba tienes los enlaces para los sitios web. Ahí puedes encontrar información como obtener las programas Sankey.
January 6th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
[...] Tidying up Tags? (tags: folksonomy tagging metadata del.icio.us research web2.0 via:mento.info) Sankey Diagrams » Sankey Diagram Software "Many of you have asked if I could name some software tools that can be used for drawing [...]
January 7th, 2009 at 10:13 am
[...] same Sankey diagram created with a Sankey software tool shows the arrow widths correctly. Posted by phineas April 3rd, 2007 Filed in Samples Tags: [...]
January 14th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
[...] fact, a better representation would be a Sankey Diagram (see below), which accounts for the losses through the process. But that’s a discussion for [...]
February 5th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
[...] tool will reach a status that would allow Sam to release it publicly, but have added it to my Sankey software list anyway. Hope version 0.3 has some fancier colors, though Posted by phineas February 4th, 2009 [...]
May 13th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
[...] In defense of the authors of this diagram I can say that in 1997 there probably weren’t any Sankey diagram software tools [...]
May 24th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
Hi,
We designed BeGraphic which is a data visualization tool inside Excel and PowerPoint made to present new graphs,business charts, choropleth maps, dynamic diagrams… including Sankey.
Any Sankey diagram can be easily done by using only three functions: “Resize”, “color” and “Magnet”. The all diagram is dynamically animated based on Excel cells’ values.
If you want to test BeGraphic software, just let us know.
Best regards,
Claire.
July 1st, 2009 at 3:58 pm
[...] but this definitely looks like an interesting add-on for Matlab users. I have added drawSankey.m to the Sankey software list. Posted by phineas July 1st, 2009 Filed in General Tags: software Del.icio.us [...]
July 10th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
I tried the Excel plug-in Sankey helper and found it seems to have brought Excel down – it will now only open in safe mode. So the first comment is a warning, especially for people like me that depend on Excel every day. Then a question – has this happened before and how do you undo things like it?
July 13th, 2009 at 9:19 am
@Kyle: you should contact the maker of the software. This list of Sankey diagram software is not a support forum.
August 26th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
I wish I had read Kyle’s post before I tried Sankey Helper with Excel 2007. It has corrupted something with my installation also. I have tried repairing excel, un-registering and re-registering and have uninstalled the entire suite and reinstalled. I still have the problem. I am not asking for support on this forum, or critical of the it in anyway. However, I suggest removing it from your list, or atleast adding a warning, in case further unsuspecting people don’t read these posts and have the same problem.
October 6th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
[...] software for drawing so-called source-destintation split diagrams. Nathany answered pointing to the Sankey software list on this blog. [...]
October 29th, 2009 at 8:42 pm
Wow, thanks for the great list here. I was searching for such a list for quite a long time. I am interested in sankey diagrams for few weeks now, so I want to find the best software for this hobby. I will read your review one more time and decide what applications to download. Thank you one more time, and I will be waiting for another great posts from you.
Sincerely,
Glen Thompson from software development company
November 11th, 2009 at 5:39 pm
The message from “begraphic” appears to be misleading spam, Their graphics software offers lots of options to display graphs, but I couldnt find any mention of sankey diagrams on their website, even a google search “sankey site:begraphic.com” didnt yield anything.
February 22nd, 2010 at 1:04 pm
For linux users, openoffice draw can be used. See the user forum http://user.services.openoffice.org/en/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=27844.
March 29th, 2010 at 11:52 am
The RSS feed doesn’t work with the internet browser (opera browser) how to deal with it?
June 14th, 2010 at 3:42 pm
[...] to give it a shot. Gabor Doka’s Sankey helper (an Excel macro) is another option. Dedicated Sankey diagram software tools are available. It would recommend one of those, if you need to produce more than one Sankey [...]