network design software

[fellis20]

do you know of any computer-aided network design software out there in the market?

thanks.

[b.speltz]

For the most part we do our designing in house and with the help of vendors. I have used Visio before and it seems like a good package out of the box. The only problem with using a boxed application is it can never map all the intricacies of a network. Just what I think….Anyone else have a suggestion on this one?

[pdooley98]

Check out http://www.visionael.com. They make a great network design suite.

[brian.f.henson]

Straight from Cisco's site:

To improve the productivity of its senior design engineers and help their newer engineers 'ramp up' more quickly, Cisco Systems collaborated with NetFormx to develop a new network design methodology. The result--Cisco Network Designer, a network design application that automates and combines the functionality of legacy drawing tools with a library of all orderable Cisco products, network design intelligence, and configuration rules. This advanced network design tool is currently used by thousands of Cisco engineers to deliver accurate, professional designs in a fraction of the time it used to take with traditional drawing tools.

[millerv]

Visio works,but can lack "referential integrity" which means no real database unless you get odbc running . I use the netformix cisco network designer,

while its not perfect (no sub interfaces for frame..)

It does have an ip planning tool, and good bill of

materials stuff.www.netformix.com