Import a diagram
Bring an existing drawing into iyedy instead of redrawing it. Each import becomes a new diagram in your library, with a report of what was mapped, what was approximated and what was left out.
On this page
Before you start
- A file of a supported kind: draw.io (
.drawio,.xml,.drawio.svg,.drawio.png), Visio (.vsdx,.vsdm), Mermaid (.mmd,.mermaid, or a Markdown file with Mermaid blocks), or an SVG or PNG exported from iyedy. - Room for one more diagram on your plan: an import is a new diagram. On Free you keep 5 you can edit.
- A screen at least 768 px wide. Imports do not run on a phone.
Import the file
- Open the Library
Press Ctrl K and run Open library.
- Choose the file
Open the arrow next to New diagram and select Import file…, then pick claims-platform.drawio. You can also drop the file on the Library.
- Read the import report
iyedy creates the diagram, opens it and says Imported claims-platform.drawio into the library. For a draw.io, Visio or Mermaid file, the Import report opens with four groups:
Group What it lists Mapped what became elements, relationships and views as they were Approximated what iyedy had to interpret, such as a kind guessed from a shape or an arrow guessed from a line style Dropped what has no place in a model, such as unlabelled decorations or background pages To check problems to look at, such as a relationship with a missing end - Tidy up, then close
Select Copy report to keep the full list, or Tidy up with the assistant to get a proposal that fixes what the report lists: nothing changes before you apply it. Select Close.
By format
draw.io
C4 shapes, UML actors, cylinders and the cloud shapes of AWS, Azure, Google Cloud and Kubernetes become elements of the matching kind. Cloud groups (account, region, VPC, subnet) turn their page into a deployment environment. Other labelled shapes become elements when a line touches them, and notes otherwise. Positions are kept. A draw.io file exported by iyedy comes back with its kinds.
Visio
Each foreground page becomes a view, with the shapes' positions and the notes; background pages are not imported. Shapes from masters whose meaning is certain (actors, databases, servers, firewalls, load balancers, AWS, Azure and Google Cloud icons) become elements of that kind; other labelled shapes become notes. Connectors glued to two shapes become relationships; a dashed line is read as an asynchronous message, and the report says so.
The older binary format .vsd cannot be read: open the drawing in Visio and save it as a Visio Drawing (.vsdx).
Mermaid
iyedy reads Mermaid flowcharts, sequence diagrams and the C4 diagrams (context, container, component, dynamic, deployment). A sequence becomes a scenario with its Sequence view. Another Mermaid type is refused, with the list of the types iyedy reads.
SVG and PNG
An SVG or PNG exported from iyedy carries its model, so it opens again as an editable diagram, with its views and layout. Any other picture has no model to read: iyedy says it found none.
If it doesn't work
“Could not import diagram.png: no iyedy model found.”
The picture was not exported from iyedy, or it was edited since. iyedy does not turn a plain picture into a model. Import the source drawing instead (draw.io, Visio or Mermaid), or describe the system to the Assistant.
“Visio 2003 to 2010 binary drawings (.vsd) cannot be read.”
Open the file in Visio and save it as a Visio Drawing (.vsdx), then import that file.
“Import needs a screen at least 768 px wide.”
Imports run on a computer or a tablet in landscape. Open iyedy there and import again.
More symptoms in Import and export troubleshooting.
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