Learning Center

Welcome to the ConceptDraw PRO Learning Center. This set of tutorial and tips were designed to explain the basic principles of working with ConceptDraw PRO functionality. Become a ConceptDraw software exper now!

Working with Smart Objects Lesson 1 Create ConceptDraw smart objects that automatically change size when text is resized. Find out how to select a group of objects, and change the font size or type automatically. Lesson 2 In order to work ConceptDraw replacement objects, learn how to work with object coordinates. Lesson 3 Use the ConceptDraw Layers feature to organize related shapes in one document page. This enables you to work with complex drawings much more conveniently. More lessons...

	Useful Tips from ConceptDraw Developers
	Share documents with MS Visio users. Share your documents with MS Visio user, by using the XML for Visio format when exporting your documents. Select File>Export>XML for Visio… option. Open the MS Visio XML documents just like a ConceptDraw document. Quickly Arrange Selected Objects. In ConceptDraw you have the ability to quickly arrange the selected objects or make them the same as the first selected object or the object with the least ID. Use the Arrange&MakeSame tools from the toolbar. MS Windows XP MacOS X Create a Hyperlink. You can make a hyperlink from any text or object in ConceptDraw document. It can be hyperlink to a page in your document to an external file or Web resource. This lets you to create even a fully functional Web-interface prototypes. Operate with Control Handles. You can operate "smart" objects by using the control handles. Drag the control handle with your mouse, and the object will change according to the formulas, which you can set using the Table view. This erables you to create interactive models. For example, demonstrate the physical laws of motion. Add Actions to Objects. Using the Table form of the document and formulas you can add some actions to the objects in your documents. For example, you can create a traffic-light object with lights switching from the context menu. Define the Object Behavior. You can set the object behaviour when it double-clicked from the Click floating dialog on PC or Double-click inspector on Macintosh. By double-click you can open a hyperlink, edit the shape's text, open Table, etc. MS Windows XP MacOS X Little Secret of the Document Properties menu. You can create Preview picture for any ConceptDraw PRO document. Go to menu File>Document Properties>General. Thus, you can see the beautiful document previews in Explorer instead of unfinished documents views. Sett Measurement Units. To quickly set the measurement units for your document, open the Units menu by clicking the button in the top left corner of the document ruler. The current units of measurement are displayed with a check mark. Select the desired units from the list. Best Way to Start a Document. ConceptDraw offers a variety of templates on different subjects. A ConceptDraw template usually contain the set of specialized libraries and sometimes an example of the document. To quickly start a new document use one of the templates from the Template Gallery. Open it from the File\Template Gallery menu. Choose the required category from the Categories list in the left part of the gallery and then open a template from the category by double-clicking its picture in the right part of the gallery. Use Texture Fill Feature. Besides the color, pattern or gradient fill in ConceptDraw, you also have the ability to fill the shapes in your document with textures. Use ConceptDraw gallery textures, your own textures, or graphic files as textures. To fill a shape with a texture, select a shape, then: MS Windows XP MacOS X Click the Fill button from the toolbar Choose Texture Fill... . Select the category from the Categories list, and double-click the texture in the preview window. You can add a texture from a graphic file by pressing the Add texture... button. Open the Fill Inspector. Select the Texture Fill tab. Select the category from the Categories list, and double-click the texture in the preview window. Choose a texture placement type from the list. You can add a texture from a graphic file by pressing the Choose Image from File ... button. Draw Arbitrary Shapes. Besides library shapes, or regular geometric shapes (like rectangles or circles) in ConceptDraw you can create arbitrary figures using the Spline Tool. Activate the Spline Tool using the corresponding button from the toolbar, using the hotkey (Ctrl + 6), or from the menu Insert\Spline Segment. MS Windows XP MacOS X The main advantage of arbitary figures is that they are vector, so you can scale or resize them without losing quality. Make Corners Round. To create a shape with rounded corners in ConceptDraw you can use the Line floating dialog in MS Windows version or Line inspector in MacOS X version. MS Windows XP MacOS X Just select a shape and change the Corner rounding parameter to round the corners of the shape. Sett the Shadow Offset. In ConceptDraw you can set the shadow offset for all shapes in the document. To set the shadow offset use the File\Document Properties dialog in MS Windows version or Shadow inspector in MacOS X version of ConceptDraw. MS Windows XP MacOS X In MS Windows version you need to enter the offset parameters manually. In the MacOS X version you can enter the offset parameters manually or just drag the grey cross in the Offset field of the Shadow inspector. Set styles for Groups of Objects. If you need to create a lot of different figures with the same style of fill, lines, text, line ends and other you can use Styles to create a Style in ConceptDraw, create any shape the way you want and use the Define Styles dialog to save this style for future use. In the Define Styles window you can make changes to your style. When you have set all of the style parameters, any press the Add button and create a name for the style. If you want to use a style select it from the styles list. All object you will be created with the selected style. Vertex Tool. To create complex shapes or change existing ones in ConceptDraw, use the Vertex tool. MS Windows XP MacOS X Select a shape and use the Vertex tool to add vertex to the shape. The cursor will look like a crossed circle. Left mouse-click to add vertex to the shape. Change way the shape look by dragging the vertex. Export Documents to HTML. ConceptDraw lets you export your drawings to HTML to place them on the Web for viewing. To save a document in the HTML format, use the menu File -> Export -> HTML . Choose one of the predefined HTML formatted templates. This is the quickest way to create ready-to-publish Web-based documents from your ConceptDraw graphics files.