draw.io Training – Exercise 3: Edit a diagram – change the shapes

By |2022-11-22T10:30:44+01:00May 11th, 2021|learning|
Reading Time: 9 min

What you are going to learn in this tutorial

  • Duplicate shapes
  • Replace shapes
  • Using the Format panel to modify shapes in new or existing diagrams
    • Bulk change shape sizes
    • Flip and rotate shapes

Introduction

Continue with your diagram from Exercise 2, or download the sample Colored Tree diagram and drag & drop it on a blank draw.io canvas. This section of the step-by-step guide does not differ in terms of the different Confluence deployments (Cloud, Data Center and Server).

Many of the features and workflows for the Diagram editor and the Board editor are identical; however, the streamlined Board editor UI does not feature a menu bar.

Template of colored tree diagram
  1. Open Confluence
  2. Open draw.io (blank diagram)
  3. Drag & drop your XML file into your blank drawing area
  4. Have fun!

This time you aren’t just changing the colors, but you will change their shapes, sizes and rotations, as well as copy multiple shapes. Try to get your edited diagram close to the result displayed at the bottom.

Modified and final tree diagram

Tutorial

Duplicate the diagram

To duplicate the entire diagram, you must first select everything: Ctrl+A (Cmd+A on a Mac), or Edit > Select All. Alternatively you can also drag a frame with your mouse to select all shapes.

You can duplicate only certain areas of a diagram, just push and hold the Shift key and select them with your mouse. Make sure that all objects and connectors you want to duplicate are selected.

Duplicate the diagram or the selected shapes by right-clicking and select Duplicate, or use the shortcut Ctrl+D (Cmd+D on a Mac). Or you can use the menu bar (Diagram editor only) Edit > Duplicate. Position the cloned diagram beneath the original.

Duplicate shapes in draw.io

Replace shapes

To convert a shape, drag the desired shape over the already existing one until you see the blueblack conversion symbol. You can do this to more than one shape at a time. In this case, select all blue rectangle shapes you’d like to replace and drag the new cloud shape over one of the selected rectangles.

Replace shapes in draw.io

Rotate shapes

There are a couple of ways to rotate shapes:

  • Use the blueblack rotate symbol. This is displayed when you select a shape.
  • Change the angle of the shape or rotate it 90° in the Arrange tab in the format panel on the right.

For this example, use the rotate option to do the following tasks:

  • Rotate the three lower clouds in different directions (the rotation doesn’t need to be accurate).
  • Rotate the two yellow rectangles.
  • Duplicate and move the yellow rectangles and connectors.
Rotate shapes in draw.io
Change angle of shapes

Flip shapes

You can flip shapes using the Arrange tab in the format panel on the right. You can choose to flip the shape vertically or horizontally.

  • Change the red rectangle to a cube shape (you find this one on the General library on the left).
  • Flip the cube (in the Arrange tab of the format panel on the right)
Flip shapes in the Format panel

In the next exercise in this basics training course, we’ll look at how to add text and labels, and work with connectors.

Tutorial exercise 4: Working with text, labels and connectors

Share This Story, Choose Your Platform!

About the Author: