2 posts tagged with "shapes"

In any diagram with branches - trees and org charts, Ishikawa diagrams, wiring diagrams, and even some flow charts - you will have multiple overlapping connectors attached to the parent shape. Using a waypoint shape between connectors will prevent manual alignment frustration when you move the parent or child shapes.

The waypoint shape​

The Waypoint shape is in the Misc shape library, which is a subcategory in the General shape library.

If you are going to use the waypoint shape or any other shape often, add it to the scratchpad so you can find it easily.

1. Search for waypoint in the shape panel.
2. Add this Waypoint shape to the canvas.
3. Drag it back onto the Scratchpad in the shape panel - by putting in the Scratchpad, you won't have to go search for it.
   

Faster and neater diagrams​

Tree diagrams, org charts and flowcharts look great with neat orthogonal connectors - lines with aligned vertical and horizontal bends. These connections look best when 'tied together' where multiple connectors attach to a single parent shape, instead of overlapping.

Select one or more connectors and choose Orthogonal (or Vertical or Horizontal) from the Waypoints drop down list in the Style tab of the format panel.

Place a waypoint shape in between the parent shape and the child shapes at the spot where the connectors would neatly separate. Then drag a connector from the parent shape to the waypoint shape. And drag connectors from the waypoint shape to each of the child shapes.

draw.io automatically repositions connectors as you move shapes around the drawing canvas, especially if you use floating connectors. Waypoint shapes help you keep your connector alignment neat.

Hide the waypoint shape​

While it is useful to see the waypoint shape in some diagrams, such as electrical wiring diagrams, you may want to hide it in tree diagrams and org charts.

1. Select the waypoint shape.
2. In the Style tab of the format panel, deselect the Line checkbox.
   

The waypoint shape will become invisible but still exist. The connectors will neatly line up and go through that point. Click on that spot to select the invisible waypoint shape if you need to move it.

You can create network diagrams from scratch in draw.io using shapes that match the platform you are using - AWS, GCP, Veeam, Azure, Cisco, IBM and many more. Both the draw.io AWS19 and GCP Icon shape libraries for network and cloud architectures have been updated recently.

Open the updated network shape libraries​

Both the Amazon Web Service and Google Cloud Platform shape libraries have been updated recently. Enable the shape libraries that you need to use in draw.io.

1. Click on More Shapes in the left-hand panel.
2. In the Networking section, click on the checkboxes next to the libraries you want to enable, then click Apply.
   

If you want to see the shape names even when you aren't hovering over a shape in the shape libraries, click on the Labels checkbox in the shape library selection dialog.

Hover over any shape in the shape libraries on the left of the drawing canvas to see a preview and its name.

Drag the shape library panel edge towards the drawing canvas to expand the panel and see more shapes.

Updated AWS19 network shapes​

Enabling the AWS19 shape library will give you a large number of sub-libraries in the left panel, sorted into logical categories. Expand the categories that you need by clicking on the sub-library's title or the arrow next to it.

As you can see below, the AWS19 shape library for modelling cloud service architectures on Amazon's platform is large and varied.

Create a new diagram with the AWS19 shape library already enabled

Updated GCP Icons​

The large Google Cloud Platform shape library containers older labels and icons, whereas the updated GCP Icons are sorted into their own shape library. Click More Shapes and enable the GCP Icons library to see updated sub-libraries shown below.

Create a new diagram with the GCP Icons shape library already enabled

Related​

Some cloud visualisation platforms can output diagrams in the .drawio format, including Cloudcraft and Cloudockit.

Embed the exported diagram in your system documentation or display it in your wiki with one of our draw.io integrations.

Network diagram templates

draw.io includes many templates for common cloud infrastructures on several platforms. Select Arrange > Insert > Template from the menu.

• Learn about infrastructure diagrams
• Use the Veeam shape library for your network diagram
• Draw an abstract C4 model to define a network architecture
• Model your physical rack layouts in draw.io