Executable UML is getting increasingly popular (again) in part thanks to the push of the  new Executable UML standards (fuml and Alf) now available. Executable UML aims at defining UML models with a behavioral specification precise enough to be effectively executed. In its purest state, Executable UML eliminates the need to program at all the software system.

Ready to give Executable UML a try? Here we collected all the executable tools we are aware of (thanks Ed for doubling the length of the lists with your suggestions!, others please jump in as well). For each tool we provide the name and URL, whether the tool is free, commercial or whatever and if the tool supports the recent Executable UML standards or its own kind of executable UML.

Reference implementations

Name License Comments
fUML Ref. Implementation (execution engine) Open source Reference implementation that can assist in evaluating vendor implementations conformance with the specification.
Alf reference implementation Open source open source implementation of the Alf language. It compiles Alf source text to fUML

fUML / Alf-based tools

Tools based on the fUML/Alf standards (in a broad sense, also including tools that derive from the initial action languages available in older UML specifications).

Name License Comments
Cameo Simulation Toolkit Commercial Model execution framework based on OMG fUML and W3C SCXML standards. Offered as an extension of MagicDraw
Moka/Papyrus UML EPL Moka is a Papyrus module for execution of UML models, which natively includes an execution engine complying with fUML. More info here
IBM Rational Software Architect Simulation Toolkit Commercial Offers state machine, interaction model and activity model execution through automatic generation of Java code. They support UML Action Language (kind of precursor of fUML/Alf) but plan to move their action language to Alf conformance (though I don’t see this happening)
Pópulo LPGLv3 Pópulo is an extensible UML model debugger, which interprets the UML action language (not clear whether Alf or the one in previous UML versions) and that can be customised for executing profiled (i.e. extended) UML models
Cassandra Commercial It supports almost complete OCL and UML Action Semantics, and more: simulation of use case models, GUI modelling, behaviour inheritance, temporal operations, rule sets as well as persistence and (nested) transactions
IBM Rational Rhapsody Commercial Offers state machine and activity diagram execution in UML and SysML models through automatic generation of Java/C++/C/C#/Add code.

Other Executable UML tools

There are quite a few interesting initiatives providing executable UML engines / tools (even if they may not be adhering to the OMG standards)

Name License Comments
xtUML EPL Open source evolution of the well-known BridgePoint tool, the original tool from Shlear and Mellor’s. xtUML is now becoming one of the leaders in this space and improving its integration within the Eclipse and Eclipse Modeling space
miUML LPGL3 license Open executable UML metamodel and API hub around which a combination of free and proprietary development tools may be contributed. Learn more about the project here. The project itself seems discontinued but the authors continue working on this field, see modelInt/td>
Cloudfier Free trial Rapid Application Development from textual UML models (see TextUML) including static and dynamic (action-based) specifications
Abstract Solutions xUML Commercial Abstract Solutions is a new incarnation of the company previously known as Kennedy-Carter, also deriving from the original proposals for Executable UML.
QM freeware Lightweight UML modeling tool for designing and implementing real-time embedded applications based on the QP state machine frameworks. Generates compact and efficient C or C++ code suitable for single-chip microcontrollers. Extended notation for internal state transitions
Sinelabore Commercial Command line tool for code-generation from UML state machines, especially targeting resource limited embedded real-time and high-availability systems. It has simulation, tracing and test-case generation capabilities.
EM/OS Enterprise Model Operation Services Commercial, partly Open Source Fully operational business applications, all tiers (Java) created from single, annotated, UML based model; Standard compliance desired, currently difficult due to abstraction level differences
Matrix Free trial Abstract modeling language and Model Compiler featuring full automatic code generation and interactive Simulator. See also this intro
txtUML Open Source txtUML stands for textual, executable and translatable UML. txtUML models can be run, debugged and tested using the standard Java runtime environments,It includes a compiler for C++
Umple Open Source Umple is a modeling tool and programming language family to enable what they call Model-Oriented Programming. Read more

Older tools (now discontinued)

Name License Comments
LieberLieber AM|USE 2.0 Commercial Offers both state machine and activity model execution. Integrated in Sparx Enterprise Architect
e-Alf Apache License 2.0 Eclipse Implementation of Action Language for Foundational UML using: Eclipse UML2 xtext Acceleo ATL. No activity in the last months
TOPCASED Model Simulation EPL This tool has been merged into Papyrus (see above).
Lohr GNU Lesser GPL A high level programming and modeling language for creating executable models of software systems
UML Almighty Open source UML tool capable of execute behavior and generate a Web prototype to execute that behavior.
Pathfinder Solutions PathMATE Commercial PathMATE transforms (executable) platform independent models to “efficient, high-performance” code.

Check our UML tools web page for more info on UML tools

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