Tutorials CadCraft help Walkthroughs
Draw a diagram from text
Paste a Mermaid flowchart, a PlantUML component diagram, D2 or a from-to list and CadCraft lays out blocks and connectors you can edit like any other objects.
Written for CadCraft 0.8. The same help is inside the app: press F1.
Type DIAGRAM (TEXTDIAGRAM, T2D). A box opens: paste the text, choose Draw, click the top left corner of the diagram and give the text height. CadCraft reads the text, lays the blocks out in layers with right-angle connectors, and draws them on a layer called Diagram. The new objects are selected, so you can move them straight away. They are plain objects: change a block's text with TEXTEDIT, stretch a connector with its grips, erase a block, add your own lines. One UNDO takes the whole diagram away.
At the command line, without the box, the text can be one line with ; between statements: flowchart LR; A[Pump] --> B[Tank].
What it reads
| Text | What is read |
|---|---|
Mermaid flowchart or graph with TD, TB, BT, LR or RL | A, A[text], A(text), A([text]), A{text} (a decision, drawn as a diamond), quoted text, -->, ---, -.->, ==>, --x, <-->, a label as `--> |
PlantUML between @startuml and @enduml (component and deployment) | [Component], component, node, database, cloud, actor, rectangle and others with as names, A --> B : label, ->, ..>, --, left to right direction |
| D2 | a -> b: label, a <- b, a <-> b, a -- b, chains, a: Label, direction: right, quoted names, # comments |
| A from-to list (a table pasted as text or CSV) | columns from, to and optionally label and type (dashed draws a dashed connector), in any order, separated by commas, semicolons or tabs; without a header line the first three columns are from, to, label |
Anything else on a line (styles, notes, loop frames) is skipped, and the command line says how many lines were skipped. A diagram has at most 400 blocks and 1200 connectors.
How it is laid out
Blocks go in layers following the connectors (a connector that loops back is drawn back up), ordered to keep crossings down, with right-angle connectors that leave the bottom of a block and enter the top of the next; LR and RL turn the layers into columns. The text height you give sets the size of everything.
Subgraphs and sequence diagrams
- A Mermaid
subgraph name [Title]…enddraws a dashed box with its title round its blocks; subgraphs can nest. The layout does not keep other blocks out of a box, so move a stray block with its grips. - A Mermaid
sequenceDiagram, or PlantUML text withparticipantlines and->messages, is drawn as blocks across the top, a dashed lifeline under each and one row per message.-->and-->>are dashed,->>and-)have an arrow head,autonumbernumbers the messages, a message to oneself loops. Notes andloop/altframes are skipped.
Symbols for single-line and piping diagrams
A block can be a drawn symbol, with its name under it, instead of a box. Name the symbol in the text:
| Text | How |
|---|---|
| Mermaid | P1[Feed pump]:::pump-cf or a line class P1 pump-cf |
| D2 | P1.shape: pump-cf or P1: Feed pump { shape: pump-cf } |
| PlantUML | component P1 <<pump-cf>> |
| A from-to list | columns from_symbol and to_symbol |
The names are the P&ID shapes (pump-cf, tank, gate, ball, exch-shell, inst-field and the rest of the P&ID library) and the Electrical set (contact.no, breaker, motor.3ph, transformer, lamp and so on). A name that two sets share goes to the P&ID set; write pid: or el: in front to choose. A name CadCraft does not know is skipped and counted. The symbols are drawn as plain lines, circles and arcs on the Diagram layer, scaled to the text height; they are not the add-ons' blocks with tags, so use the P&ID or Electrical commands for a working drawing.
AI assistants can do the same through the diagram_from_text tool in the window.