Shapes¶

Moving shapes from a library onto the page is most of what you'll do in SimpleDiagrams. Here's everything about that.

What ships with the app¶

Six libraries, 280 drawn symbols:

You can add your own, too — see Your own libraries.

Getting a shape onto the page¶

Two ways, both obvious once you've done them:

• Drag the shape from the panel onto the canvas.
• Click the shape once to arm it, then click on the canvas where you want it. Drag instead of clicking and you get to set the size as you place it.

After placing, the app flips you back to the Select tool. Changed your mind mid-place? Press Esc.

Finding the shape you want¶

Search in the panel¶

Type into Search shapes at the top of the Library panel. It matches shape names, library names and keywords. While you're searching, a Search In picker lets you narrow to All Libraries, Favorites, or one specific library.

Press Esc or click the × to get back to the normal library list.

Cmd+F ("Find in Libraries…") does the same thing from anywhere — it opens the Library panel and puts the cursor in the search box.

Quick Library Search¶

Press Alt+Space. A small window appears with the cursor already in the field. Type, use Up and Down to pick from the results, and press Enter to drop the shape in the middle of your canvas. Esc closes it.

There's no menu item and no button for this. It's the fastest thing in the app.

Favourites¶

Right-click any shape and choose Add to Favorites. Favourites get their own section at the top of the Library panel, and you can search just within them.

Keep it to the ones you genuinely reach for. The panel gets cluttered fast and that's good for nobody. (There's a hard ceiling of 512, but if you're near it you have bigger problems.)

To remove one, right-click it and choose Remove from Favorites.

The three little toggles¶

At the top of the Library panel are three buttons worth knowing:

• Show shape tooltips — hover a shape to see its name. Off by default.
• Show shapes in use — adds an In Use section listing every shape already on the current page, so you can place another of the same thing without hunting. On by default.
• Show shape counts — the "N shapes" number on each library heading. On by default.

Contact sheets¶

Right-click a library's heading and choose Contact Sheet… to get a printable overview of everything in it. You can page through it, print it, or save it as a PDF. Handy when you're deciding what to use, or when you want a cheat sheet on the wall.

Selecting and moving things¶

Resizing and rotating¶

Select a single shape and you get eight handles around it, plus a round rotate handle above it.

• Drag a handle to resize.
• Shift + drag keeps the proportions.
• Alt + drag resizes from the centre instead of the opposite corner.
• Drag the round handle to rotate. Hold Shift to snap to 15° steps.

Select more than one shape and you get four corner handles that resize the whole group proportionally.

For exact numbers, open the Transform panel (Cmd+Alt+3) and type X, Y, width, height and angle directly. There's a lock button there to keep width and height in proportion while you type.

Flipping and rotating by 90°¶

These live in the Arrange menu:

The Shape Properties panel has flip buttons too, if you'd rather click than remember.

Groups¶

Select two or more things and press Cmd+G to group them. Cmd+Shift+G ungroups.

Clicking any member of a group selects the whole group. To get at one thing inside, double-click it — that enters the group and selects just that member. Click outside the group's frame, or press Esc, to come back out.

Locking¶

Cmd+L locks the selection so you can't move or edit it by accident — useful for a background diagram you're annotating on top of. Cmd+Shift+L unlocks.

Locked objects ignore dragging and refuse most commands, which is the point.

Making a library shape out of your own drawing¶

Draw a closed shape with the Polyshape tool, select it, right-click and choose Add to Library…. Give it a name, pick a library, and it's yours to reuse. See Your own libraries.