Troubleshooting¶

I can't draw anything¶

Check the status bar at the bottom of the window. If it says Trial ended · View only, the trial has ended and the app is in viewing mode. This only happens in the direct download; the Mac App Store build has no trial.

If you just accepted the licence agreement and still cannot draw, open SimpleDiagrams ▸ Get SimpleDiagrams… to see the trial-start error and retry, or enter your licence. See Licence and trial.

Where did my diagram go?¶

Press Cmd+1 (Fit Artwork). The canvas is infinite and it's genuinely easy to scroll off into empty space.

Cmd+Shift+O opens the Overview navigator, which shows you where everything is relative to where you're looking.

A panel has vanished¶

Open Window ▸ Panels, choose the missing panel, then Show. It returns to its previous position. Choose Dock on Left, Dock on Right, or Float if you'd like to show it somewhere else. Or click the sidebar button at the top right of the canvas — every panel is listed there.

If you've made a proper mess: Settings ▸ Reset Workspace… restores everything to where it started. Your diagrams aren't affected.

Keyboard shortcuts aren't doing anything¶

Tool letters (V, L, T and friends) only work when the canvas has keyboard focus. If you've just typed in a panel field, click on the canvas first.

They also don't fire while you're holding Cmd, Ctrl or Alt.

My connector won't attach¶

Use the Connector tool (L) and move slowly near the shape's edge — its connection points appear as small blue dots when you're close enough. The one you're about to attach to fills in and gains a ring. Release while it does.

If the shape is from one of your own libraries and has no useful attachment spots, open Edit Library and set its connection points. See Your own libraries.

I can't move a connector¶

If either end is attached to a shape, the line can't be dragged as a whole — move the shape instead, and the connector follows. That's the point of attaching it.

To move a connector bodily, detach both ends first (drag each endpoint into open space), then Cmd-drag it.

Shapes won't line up¶

Turn on Snap to Grid (Cmd+Shift+") and set the spacing in View ▸ Grid Settings…. Or show the rulers (Ctrl+Cmd+R) and drag out a guide — objects always snap to visible guides.

For exact positions, use the Transform panel (Cmd+Alt+3) and type the numbers.

There are no automatic smart guides between objects in this version.

The grid doesn't show up in my export¶

It's left out unless you ask for it. Tick Include Grid in the Export panel. If it's still missing, check that the page is actually showing its grid (View ▸ Show Grid): a hidden grid isn't exported.

The grid is never printed. To print one, export a PDF with Include Grid ticked and print that.

There are two grids on my page¶

You've got a background with its own lines and the page grid. Press Cmd+' to hide the grid, or open View ▸ Grid Settings… and choose No Grid.

A diagram says it was made by a newer version¶

When a version adds new kinds of shape, it saves diagrams in a newer format so they can hold them: 5.1 for containers and swimlanes, 5.2 for rings, flows, entity tables and styled words, 5.3 for labels at the ends of connectors, audiences and ring percentages. That only works in one direction:

Each version opens everything earlier versions made. Once you save a diagram, though, it's in that version's format.
An older version can't open a newer format, whatever's in it. From 5.1 on, the app says This document was saved by a newer version of SimpleDiagrams and asks you to update, and shapes pasted from a newer version get the same message. SimpleDiagrams 5.0 just says something like "The SimpleDiagrams package version 19 is not supported", and pasting into it does nothing at all.
From 5.2 on, a new kind of complex shape doesn't lock you out on its own. When a later version adds one without changing the format, 5.2 opens the diagram and shows that shape as a grey box saying it was made with a newer version. See Shapes from a newer version.

The fix is the same both ways: update the older copy. An older version declines to open a newer diagram rather than quietly throwing away the parts it doesn't understand, which is annoying but better than the alternative. If you share diagrams, ask the people you share with to update too.

Shapes from a downloaded library show as boxes with a question mark¶

The diagram uses shapes from a library you can download from simplediagrams.com, and that library isn't installed on this Mac, or the version you have doesn't include those shapes. A diagram made in SimpleDiagrams carries its downloaded shapes inside the file, so this mostly happens with diagrams made by other tools, which can name a library's shapes without including them.

Nothing's lost. Each missing shape keeps its place and size as a dashed box with a ? in it, and its connectors stay attached.

A bar above the diagram names the library, when the diagram says which one, and Get Library ↗ opens its page on simplediagrams.com in your web browser. (With more than one library missing, Get Libraries lists them.) Install the library (see Adding a library), then open the diagram again: the shapes appear in place, and from then on the diagram carries them itself. Later hides the bar until you next open the diagram.

If the bar says some shapes need a newer version of SimpleDiagrams, they're from a library that comes with the app. Update SimpleDiagrams and they'll appear.

Save, Export or Print says it's waiting for my words¶

You were typing words the app can't take, such as more than a table cell holds. They stay where you typed them: shorten them, or copy them somewhere else, and try again. See Still typing?.

The Library panel says some libraries need attention¶

A library you removed in an earlier version left a copy that SimpleDiagrams couldn't read. It keeps that copy rather than deleting it, and tries again the next time it opens. Show in Finder takes you to it if you'd like to look.

My exported PNG has a transparent background and I wanted white¶

In the Export panel, set Output ground to White. And check Include Page Background if you want the chalkboard or paper texture to come along.

An imported diagram looks wrong¶

Version 3 and 4 diagrams convert on a best-effort basis. Shapes from libraries you haven't installed become approximations.

Import the old .sdlp library first, then re-import the diagram — the shapes will match. Full detail in Opening older diagrams.

An SVG won't convert to an editable shape¶

Gradients, filters, text and a few other SVG features can't be converted safely. The Convert to Editable Shape button is disabled in that case, with a note saying why.

Use Keep as SVG Artwork instead. You can still move, resize, rotate and connect it — you just can't restyle it with the colour chips.

Keep as SVG Artwork isn't offered for an SVG¶

This applies from SimpleDiagrams 5.1.1.

The file has a filled area whose outline crosses over itself so many times that filling it would stall every repaint. Converting it keeps the lines and leaves that fill out, which is the only safe way in. If you need the fill, simplify that shape in your drawing app and import it again. More in Importing artwork.

An image won't import¶

Check it isn't animated or multi-frame, isn't over 16 MB, isn't more than 16,384 pixels on a side, and isn't over 40 megapixels. Any one of those and the app declines.

Open it in Preview, export a flattened copy, and try again.

I undid too far¶

Cmd+Shift+Z redoes. And if the damage is older than the undo stack, File ▸ Revert To ▸ Browse All Versions… gives you macOS's version browser.

Still stuck?¶

Turn on Settings ▸ Verbose logging until restart, reproduce the problem, then use Export Diagnostics… to save a report.

The report contains app and macOS versions and event codes — no diagram content, no file names, nothing personal. The app shows you what's in it before it saves.

Send it to support@simplediagrams.com with a line about what you were doing. You'll get a real person, usually within a day.