Your own libraries¶

This is the part of the app for people who want to twist SimpleDiagrams to their own machinations. If that's you, read on. If not, you can safely skip this page forever.

Making a library¶

Click the books icon at the top of the Library panel and choose New Library…. You get the Edit Library sheet.

Give it a Library Name, then start adding artwork.

Adding artwork¶

Add Artwork… accepts SVG files, ordinary images (PNG, JPEG), and native SimpleDiagrams vectors. Up to 32 files at a time. You can also just drag files into the sheet.

For each item you can set:

Field	What it's for
Item Name	What shows in the panel and what search matches
Keywords	Extra search terms, separated by commas
Fill / Stroke	The default colours for this shape, with hex entry
Fill Texture / Stroke Texture	Default textures
Text region	X, Y, width and height of where a label sits on the shape
Connection Points	Where connectors can attach

Per-item actions: Copy Item, Paste Item, Replace Artwork… and Delete Item.

Keywords are worth the effort

Nobody remembers what they called a shape eighteen months later, but everyone remembers roughly what it is. Three or four keywords per shape makes Alt+Space actually useful.

Connection points¶

This is the bit that turns a picture into a proper diagram shape.

The Connection Points editor lets you place the spots where connectors will attach. There's Add Center Point, Delete for one you don't want, and Reset to Standard Points to go back to the default ring around the bounding box.

Standard points are fine for a box. For anything with a distinct shape — a cylinder, a person, an arrow — putting the points where the artwork actually has edges makes a real difference.

Turning a drawing into a library shape¶

You don't have to start in the Edit Library sheet. Draw something on the canvas with the Polyshape tool, select it, right-click, and choose Add to Library….

Give it an Item Name, pick which Library it goes in, and click Add.

This only works for a single selected closed path — the app needs a shape, not a sketch.

Editing a library later¶

Books menu ▸ Edit Library ▸ pick the library. Same sheet, same controls. Nothing is saved until you click Save.

From the books menu:

Duplicate Library — a local copy to experiment on.
Copy Library / Paste Library — via the clipboard.
Export Library — writes a .sdlibrary package to send to someone.

See Using libraries for importing on the other end.

Inspecting what you've got¶

Select a single shape on the canvas and choose Edit ▸ Inspect Selected Artwork… to see its size, ID, format and licence facts. If something's gone missing or is only an approximation, that dialog also offers Replace Artwork….

Right-clicking a shape in the Library panel gives you Inspect Artwork… for the same information about the library item itself.

Limits¶

Thing	Limit
Items per library	10,000
Size per shape	16 MB
Size per library	100 MB
Files per Add Artwork…	32

If you're anywhere near these, I'd genuinely like to hear what you're building.