Diagrams

Written By Clayton Combe

Last updated 26 days 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 components of your diagram are displayed

  • Types - allows you to customize your visibility based on item type, without making destructive changes

    • Hide or lock all items of the same type here

  • Items - rearrange and Group items to define how they display and overlap

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.