Dia

Kevin Breit

Henry House

Judith Samson

Alan Horkan

Thomas Harding

Mark Dexter

This is version 0.97.0 of the Dia manual.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. You may obtain a copy of the GNU Free Documentation License from the Free Software Foundation by visiting their Web site or by writing to: Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.

Many of the names used by companies to distinguish their products and services are claimed as trademarks. Where those names appear in any GNOME documentation, and those trademarks are made aware to the members of the GNOME Documentation Project, the names have been printed in caps or initial caps.

Revision History
Revision 0.97.02008-27-05sdteffen
Bumping dates and revisions to show progress for 0.97 release
Revision 0.5-22008-27-05HDG
dropping HTML entities, making dia-1.xml independant from dia-cmdline.xml, dropping file extension from graphics

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
Introduction
2. Quickstart
What Can You Do?
Starting Dia
Creating a Canvas
Making a Diagram
Saving and Printing Your Diagram
Running Dia From the Command Line
Who Does Dia Appeal To?
3. The Canvas
Canvas Introduction
Grid Lines
Rulers
Background Color
Zooming
Other View Menu Options
Undo and Redo
4. Objects and the Toolbox
Dia Toolbox Overview
Modify Control
Magnify Control
Scroll Control
Basic Objects
Special Objects
Default Color, Line Width, and Line Style
Using Objects
Adding Objects
Moving Objects
Resizing Objects
Deleting Objects
Connecting Objects With Lines
Entering Text
Aligning Objects
Grouping Objects
Object Properties
Sources of Default Properties
Changing Object Properties
Colors
Select Color Box
Diagram Tree
Opening the Diagram Tree
Working With the Diagram Tree
5. Basic Objects
Basic Objects Introduction
Text
Box
Ellipse
Polygon
Beziergon
Line
Arc
Zigzagline
Polyline
Bezierline
Line Properties
Image
Outline
6. Special Objects
Special Objects
Special Object Categories
Organizing Sheets and Objects
7. Selecting Objects
Selection Introduction
How To Select Objects
Selecting a Single Object
Deselecting Objects
Selecting Multiple Objects
Working With Selected Objects
Operations on All Selected Objects
8. Loading and Saving Diagrams
Loading and Saving Introduction
File Types
Dia Native Diagram Files
Import Formats
Exporting: Support for Other Formats
9. Customization
Preferences Dialog
User Interface
Diagram Defaults
View Defaults
File export favorites
Grid Lines
Diagram Tree
10. Managing Layers
Introduction to Layers
Managing Layers Basics
Create a New Layer
Selecting Layers
Ordering Layers
Deleting Layers
Renaming Layers
Viewing Layers
11. Custom Shape Module
Custom-shape Module introduction
Shapes
The Shape Description
Style attribute
Recognised drawing elements
Shapes in Shapes aka. Subshapes
Extented Attributes
The Sheet description
How Dia helps to create and manage sheets and shapes.
Design Notes
12. Dia command line
Introduction
Command line manual
13. Authors
14. License
License

List of Figures

1.1. Sample Flowchart Diagram
2.1. Sample Network Diagram
2.2. Dia Startup
3.1. Diagram / Properties / Grid
3.2. Snap-To-Grid Toggle Button
3.3. Ruler With Arrows Circled in Red
3.4. Changing Background Color
3.5. Toolbox Magnify
3.6. Canvas Zoom
3.7. View Menu Zoom Options
3.8. View Menu
4.1. Dia Toolbox
4.2. Modify Control
4.3. Magnify Control
4.4. Scroll Control
4.5. Special Objects
4.6. Default Color, Line Width, and Line Style
4.7. Restore Default Colors Button
4.8. Reverse Colors Button
4.9. Default Line Width
4.10. Arrow and Line Style
4.11. Object Handles
4.12. Line Handles
4.13. Line Connected
4.14. Fixed Connection Point
4.15. Middle Connection Point
4.16. Edit Menu Text Commands
4.17. Deleting Text
4.18. Objects / Align Options
4.19. Before Left, Center, Right Align
4.20. Align Left
4.21. Align Center
4.22. Align Right
4.23. Before Top, Middle, Bottom Align
4.24. Align Top
4.25. Align Middle
4.26. Align Bottom
4.27. Before Spread Out Horizontally
4.28. After Spread Out Horizontally
4.29. Before Spread Out Vertically
4.30. After Spread Out Vertically
4.31. Align / Adjacent
4.32. Align / Stacked
4.33. Before and After Group Create
4.34. Default Text Properties
4.35. Default Box Properties
4.36. Color Listbox
4.37. Select Color Box
4.38. Diagram Tree
4.39. Diagram Tree Sort Options
5.1. Basic Objects
5.2. Zigzagline Right-Click Menu
5.3. Polyline Right-Click Menu
5.4. Bezierline Right-Click Menu
5.5. Standard Line Properties
5.6. Line Colors
5.7. Line Styles
5.8. Line Arrows
5.9. Image
6.1. Assorted
6.2. Cisco - Computer
6.3. Cisco - Misc
6.4. Cisco - Network
6.5. Cisco - Switch
6.6. Cisco - Telephony
6.7. Flowchart
6.8. Misc
6.9. Network
6.10. UML
6.11. UML Class Properties
6.12. Sheets and Objects
7.1. Selected Object
7.2. Select By Area Example
7.3. Select Menu
9.1. User Interface
9.2. Diagram Defaults
9.3. View Defaults
9.4. File export favorites
9.5. Grid Lines
9.6. Diagram Tree