The Build category (on the palette strip after Draw) holds the elements you lay a diagram out with. Everywhere else in the palette you are adding something to the canvas; here you are deciding how the canvas is arranged.
What the first five have in common is that each one holds other work. A frame gathers a region, a lane carries the steps in a row, a timeline sequences events along a track, a table organises cells, and a mind node hangs children off itself. You reach for them at the same moment: once you know how the diagram is arranged, before you have decided what goes in it.
What the category contains
- A Mind node is a node that knows its parent. Tab adds a child to its right, Enter a sibling below, each one connected and selected; start typing to label it, so a whole branch is built from the keyboard. See Mind Maps.
- An Org Chart is a mind map of people: each node shows an initials disc, a name and a role, Tab adds a report below and Enter a peer beside it, and the chart lays itself out top down. See Org Charts.
- A Flowchart starts as a Start step. Tab adds the next step and Enter a parallel one, and the whole chart lays itself out after every change; any step can become a Decision, an Input / Output and more, and the chart can run in swimlanes. See Flowcharts.
- A Table is an editable grid of cells you can style, link, and fill row by row; double-click a cell to type. See Tables.
- A Lane is a titled horizontal band for swimlane diagrams, its title down its left edge. Dragging the lane carries everything sitting in it, so a row of steps moves as one. See Lanes.
- A Frame is a labelled box that groups a section of the canvas. It draws behind its contents and carries them when you move it, and a slide with one frame on it is framed by it. Press
Fto add one. See Frames. - A Sequence diagram shows who calls whom, in order: participants side by side over dashed lifelines and a row per message. Double-click it to write its participants and messages in a dialog, where Enter in a message adds the next one, and the diagram lays itself out; replies are dashed and answered calls get an activation bar. See Sequence Diagrams.
- A Stack lines up whatever you drop into it in a row, a column or a grid with even gaps, and reflows as things are added, removed or resized, so a row of cards never needs nudging into line. See Stacks.
- A Diagram Key lists the line styles and tag colours the tab uses, each with a meaning you type, and keeps itself up to date as the diagram changes. See Diagram Keys and Tag Colours.
- A Boundary is a titled, tinted container for a cloud region, a VPC, a cluster or a C4 system. It carries what sits inside it like a frame, and boundaries nested in each other read deeper. See Boundaries.
- A Timeline is a track for sequencing events, with points above the line; add more with Add Point from its + buttons. See Timeline Rail. The Sankey diagram, which shows how much moves where, used to sit here too. It has moved to Concepts, beside the funnel and the cycle: rather than holding work you place in it, it lays itself out from the flows you give it, as they do. See Sankey Diagram.
In Diagram mode four more tiles follow, for the nodes and marks a finished diagram is made of:
- A Card is one node with a title, a meta line, a body, an icon and tags, each switched on or off. See Cards and Callouts.
- A Badge is a small pill of text and a Step Number a numbered disc; drop either on a node's corner and it travels with the node. See Badges and Step Numbers.
- An Entity is a class or a table: a title over its fields, for a data model. See Entities.
Card and Badge each come in presets: press one and its presets open in a second panel beside Build's.
Build is in the palette in Diagram mode. In Draw mode the palette gives way to the dock, whose shape catalogue still offers the mind node, lane, frame and timeline. In Illustrate mode it holds the Table, the Stack and the Timeline, since mind maps, flowcharts, lanes and frames organise a diagram rather than a page, and Plan mode has no Build category.
Cards, not pictures
Shapes show as a grid of pictures, because the picture is the explanation. The containers here are, at tile size, all a rectangle. So Build's palette panel lists them as cards with a one-line description each, in two groups, Diagrams and Layout and Parts: "Tab adds a child, Enter a sibling" against "A titled band that carries its steps" is what you are actually choosing between, and no icon says that.
These five used to live in four different places, filed by what they look like rather than what they do: the mind node with the wordy elements, the lane and frame with the drawing tools, the timeline with the components, the table with the charts.
Working with them
Each behaves like any other element once placed: select, restyle, lock, and move it freely, and each can carry a link, a note, or a comment like anything else on the canvas.
Because they hold other work, two habits pay off. Put the container down first and fill it afterwards, so the things inside are captured by it as you go. And when you move one, check what came with it: a frame and a lane carry everything whose centre sits inside them, and a mind node carries its whole branch, which is usually what you want and occasionally a surprise. Resizing a frame or a lane never moves its contents.
Reach for Build at the start of a canvas and the rest goes faster: lay out the lanes or frames you know you need, then switch to Shapes and fill them in.
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