Files and formats¶

The SimpleDiagrams document¶

Version 5 saves .simplediagram files. Diagrams made in the app carry their artwork, imported images, backgrounds, downloaded library shapes, and Quick Styles inside the file.

That's the important part. Send someone a diagram made in the app and it arrives complete. No missing links, no "can you also send me the logo". Just make sure they have SimpleDiagrams 5.3 or later: a diagram saved by 5.3 doesn't open in earlier versions. See Troubleshooting.

A document made by another tool can instead name a downloaded library's shape without including its artwork. When you open it, the app fills in every shape from a library you've installed, and from then on the diagram carries those shapes itself. A shape from a library you don't have shows as a dashed box with a question mark, and a bar above the diagram names the library and links to its page on simplediagrams.com. The app keeps the reference when you save, so the shape appears once you install the library and open the diagram again. See Troubleshooting.

Saving¶

Standard Mac behaviour, because it's a standard Mac app:

The app autosaves in place and keeps Versions, so macOS's time-machine-style version browser works. If you've made a mess, Revert To ▸ Browse All Versions… will get you out of it.

The status bar tells you where you stand: Saved, Edited, or Imported — save to convert.

Opening files¶

File ▸ Open… (Cmd+O) accepts:

• .simplediagram — version 5 documents
• .sdxml — version 3 and 4 documents (see Opening older diagrams)
• .vsdx, .vsdm, .vstx and .vstm — Microsoft Visio drawings and templates, which open as a new, unsaved diagram (see Visio drawings and stencils)
• .vssx and .vssm — Visio stencils, which become a library rather than a document
• .bpmn — BPMN 2.0 process files, which open as a new, unsaved diagram (see Opening and exporting BPMN files)

Visio's files from before 2013 (.vsd, .vdx, .vst, .vtx, .vss and .vsx) aren't read. Choose or drop one and SimpleDiagrams says so, and tells you how to get a copy it can use: open it in Visio and save it in the newer format.

File ▸ Open Recent keeps your last 10, with Clear Menu at the bottom.

Library and palette files¶

Double-click a .sdlibrary or .sdlp in the Finder to install it. A Visio stencil installs the same way when SimpleDiagrams is the app that opens it. If another app on your Mac claims Visio files, Control-click the stencil and choose Open With ▸ SimpleDiagrams, or just drop it on a SimpleDiagrams window.

Some newer libraries, such as those that come with shape data or let you choose their starting colours, need SimpleDiagrams 5.0.5 or later. An older version tells you to update rather than importing part of the library.

Libraries saved or exported by SimpleDiagrams 5.1 or later record each shape's slug (see Your own libraries), so they need 5.1 or later. 5.2 and 5.3 save libraries just as 5.1 does.

What you can export¶

PNG, PDF, SVG and JPEG. See Exporting and printing. A page can also go out as a .bpmn file with File ▸ Export as BPMN…; see Opening and exporting BPMN files.

Limits¶

Generous, but they exist so a runaway file can't take the app down with it:

Where things live¶

The app is sandboxed, so its own files sit in a container:

~/Library/Containers/com.simplediagrams.desktop/Data/

Inside that:

• Library/Application Support/SimpleDiagrams/Custom Libraries/ — your libraries
• Personal Shape Data.json, Personal Shape Geometry.json and Personal Shape Paint.json in the Custom Libraries folder — your own changes to downloaded and built-in libraries: extra fields and connection points, plus starting colours for downloaded libraries that allow it. Back these up with your libraries.
• Library/Caches/SimpleDiagrams/ — thumbnails, safe to delete

Your documents go wherever you save them. The app only ever touches files you've picked yourself — that's what the sandbox guarantees.

In the direct build, your licence key and trial clock live in the macOS Keychain, not in a file. The Mac App Store build has neither.

Privacy, briefly¶

The app has no network access at all. Not restricted, not opt-in — the capability isn't in the build. It can't phone home because it has no way to phone anything.

There's no account, no telemetry, no analytics. The Mac App Store version is paid for in the App Store before you install it, so the app itself never deals with purchases.

The Mac App Store version asks once, after your third export, whether you'd like to rate it. That box is macOS's own: macOS shows it and sends your rating, and the app itself still connects to nothing. It never asks again.

Imported images have their metadata stripped, so a photo won't carry its GPS coordinates into a diagram you send someone.

The full privacy policy is in the app under Help ▸ Privacy Policy….