Using libraries¶

The six built-in libraries are described in Shapes. This page is about managing the list — hiding what you don't use, reordering it, and adding libraries from elsewhere.

Manage Libraries¶

Click the books icon at the top of the Library panel. You get a menu with:

• New Library…
• Paste Library
• Import Library…
• Manage Libraries…

…plus Edit, Duplicate, Copy, Export and Remove submenus once you have libraries of your own.

Manage Libraries… opens a sheet listing every library with a checkbox and a drag handle. Untick a library to take it out of the panel; drag to change the order shapes appear in. Each one is marked Built-in or Imported so you know what you're looking at.

Built-in libraries can be hidden but not removed — they're part of the app.

Adding a library¶

Three ways:

• Import Library… from the books menu.
• Double-click a library file in the Finder.
• Drag a library file onto the Library panel or the canvas.

Two file types work:

• .sdlibrary — the native SimpleDiagrams 5 library package.
• .sdlp — the legacy library plugin format from version 3 and 4.

About legacy .sdlp libraries¶

Your old library plugins still work. When you import one, every SVG inside is compiled into the app's native vector format — you'll see an Importing Library… progress bar while it works, and a confirmation when it's done.

It's all or nothing: if any single shape can't be converted, the whole import stops rather than quietly giving you a library with holes in it.

Limits, in case you have something enormous: 10,000 items, 16 MB per shape, 100 MB total.

Updating a library you already have¶

Import a package with the same identity as one you've already got and the app asks Update ? rather than creating a duplicate.

Removing a library¶

Use Remove Library from the books menu. You'll be asked to confirm.

Two reassurances:

1. Diagrams that already use those shapes keep working. Artwork is embedded in the document, so removing a library never breaks a diagram you've already made.
2. The package isn't deleted. It's moved to a Removed Libraries folder, so you can get it back.

Exporting and sharing a library¶

Export Library writes a .sdlibrary package you can send to someone else, put in a shared folder, or keep as a backup.

Copy Library and Paste Library do the same thing through the clipboard, which is quicker when you're moving something between two copies of the app.

Where libraries live on disk¶

Inside the app's sandbox container:

~/Library/Containers/com.simplediagrams.desktop/Data/Library/
    Application Support/SimpleDiagrams/Custom Libraries/

Removed libraries sit in a Removed Libraries folder beside them.

You don't normally need to go in there — but if you're backing things up or moving to a new Mac, that's the folder.