Diagrams

Written By Clayton Combe

Last updated About 1 month ago

Diagrams represent physical layouts of your setups.

  • They can include lighting, camera, actors, and other items

  • The end result is usually a saved image

  • Use Keyboard Shortcuts to speed up your work

Managing Diagrams in Projects

Navigate to the Diagrams & Lists tab in a Project to see its Diagrams:

  • New Diagram → creates a new blank Diagram in the Project

  • Duplicate → makes a copy of the selected Diagram and all its contents

  • Delete → deletes the selected Diagram

  • (Click and drag Diagram) → move Diagram to another Project

  • Undo/Redo → undo and redo changes made to Diagrams

Diagram editor

To open a Diagram, select it, then click it or press Enter to present the Diagram editor:

The fundamental concepts are:

The “canvas”

Your workspace to build in.

  • Pinch to zoom, scroll with two fingers to move around

  • Hover or right-click to reveal Tooltips & Pop-Up Menus and find more features

Items

All types of objects that can be added:

  • Actors represent people, which can be moved around and can “target” other items

  • Cameras can move and target, but also see a field-of-view based on format and lens focal length

  • Fixtures represent lights, which can also target, and set DMX channel and address

  • Pipes represent a long item that’s resizeable in one dimension (like truss or dolly track)

  • Arrows represent motion; connect them to other items and create complex paths

  • Markup, Text, Images allow you to annotate your Diagrams with items that don’t represent real-world objects

  • Floor plan multiple types of objects, including walls, doors, windows, stairs, and gaps

Layers

How the different items on your diagram are organized. Rearrange and Group items to define how they display and overlap.

Visibility

Hide and show items by type, or certain display details, such as DMX labels. This ensures that everyone working on a Diagram can look at only what they need to see; each user has their own visibility setup.

  • Open the sidebar by clicking the button in the bottom left, or use the V key

  • Hide or lock rows to update their corresponding display on the diagram editor (but remember, this is just what you see

  • This view also lets you change the units of measure for the dot grid

Add Item

Add new items from the built-in library or Cloud Library.

  • Drag-and-drop items onto the diagram, or use the “Add” button

  • Hold Shift while dragging an item on top of another item (or use the “Swap” button) to “swap” it out

    • This changes the item, but keeps the old items properties (color, DMX, etc)

Details

View and change an item’s properties.

Editing items

  • Any item on the Diagram can be dragged to move

    • If you can’t select it, check whether it’s locked

  • Move, rotate, hide, or format its Text Label

    • Use the bottom action button to hide/show the label as needed

    • If the label is hidden, you can change it from the Layers or Details sidebar

    • Double-click or use the Enter key to toggle text editing, and format the text as needed

      • Labels can format Color, Text Size, Bold, Italic, Underline, Strikethrough – no lists or justification (like Text items Markup, Text, Images)

      • Label formatting applies to the whole label text, not only the selected part

  • Multi-select items by:

    • Dragging a box around them with one finger

    • Use four fingers to create a selection box

    • Hold the Shift or CMD key to select additional items

  • For targeting-enabled items, drag the crosshairs to “focus” the item

    • If pointed to another item, the item will “target” that item and point at it wherever either of them move

    • If pointed to empty space, the item will just have its rotation set

  • For items with rotation buttons, drag the button to rotate the item

  • For items with control points, drag to perform specific functions

    • Item text labels → move the label relative to the item

    • Pipes, Images, Text → resize the item

Groups

Combine multiple items for better organization and easier editing

Diagram editor settings

In the bottom left, decide how your device displays Diagrams:

  • Units of measure - switch between feet and meters by tapping the button that says “ft” or “m”

  • Dot grid - display a grid of dots as a scale reference, or hide it

  • Snap - ensure items align with each other, and resize to whole numbers

Bottom actions

When an item is selected, the Diagram editor displays relevant actions at the bottom of the screen:

  • Color → choose among item colors, for stroke and fill

  • Text size → change the size of the text

  • Line width (only Arrows and some Floor Plan items) → change line thickness

  • Line style (only Arrows) → change between solid and dashed or dotted

  • Change lens (only Cameras) → open the lens picker

  • Frame image (only Cameras) → show or hide the frame image view

  • DMX (only Fixtures) → toggle whether DMX controls are displayed for that Fixture

  • Duplicate → make an exact copy of the selected item

  • Delete → delete the selected item

Cut/copy/paste

Items can be cut or copied from any Diagram, and pasted to any other Diagram (subject to privacy settings in your Scenario account)

  • Use keystrokes CMD X for cut, CMD C for copy, and CMD V for paste

  • Perform from a pop-up menu as well, plus additional options:

    • Paste here → centers the pasted item at the click point

    • Paste to swap → pastes to replace the current selected item

Undo/redo

Use the buttons in the bottom right corner to undo and redo your actions, or use the keystrokes CMD Z and CMD SHIFT Z

Projects sidebar

Display all Projects, or recently opened Diagrams and Lists, for fast switching.

Layers sidebar

Display all items on the Diagram

  • Select any item

  • Sort and filter for easy use

  • Group items for more control

  • Rearrange items to control overlapping

Add Item sidebar

Add new items to your Diagram

  • Search and filter to find what you’re looking for

  • Drag-and-drop to add or swap the item onto the Diagram

Details sidebar

Edit the properties of an item

  • For any selected item or Group (and for the Diagram itself if nothing is selected)

  • Edit name and notes

  • Change size and rotation numerically

  • Lock - prevent the item from being selected or moved from the Diagram

  • Hide - make the item invisible on the Diagram

  • Opacity - set the item’s visibility

Snap

Snapping allows you to align items quickly on the Diagram; click the “magnet” button or press the N key to turn it on and off. See Snap, Targeting, Connection for more details.