Elements

Choose an element by what it needs to do: hold text, connect other elements, organize a drawing, or display an image. The standard registry supplies the following elements without an optional shape library.

Browse the illustrated catalog · Appearance · Text and regions · Tables · Frames and groups

At a glance

Element	Editable appearance	Text	Resize and structure
Rectangle	Fill, border, rounded corners	One region	Side and corner handles
Ellipse	Fill and border	One inset region	Side and corner handles
Polygon	Fill, border, corners, side count	One inset region	Side and corner handles
Path	Fill, stroke, corners; open or closed geometry	None	Edit individual anchors and Bézier handles
Drawing	Ink color, width, preset and supported fill	One region	Resize the authored drawing
Card	Fill, border and rounded corners	Optional tag, title and description	Text can grow its height; four side ports
Comment	Fixed yellow paper and folded corner	Editable body	Text can grow its height
Table	Fill, border and corners; outer, row and column borders	Body text in each cell	Shape handles and row/column dividers
Frame	Fill, border and rounded corners	Title above the frame	Resize boundary; child positions stay intact
Group	No painted surface	None	Resize children together
Image	Source and fit	None	Resize image bounds
Text	Text formatting; no shape fill or border	Rich Text	Width controls wrapping; content can grow height
Connector	Stroke, routing, arrowheads, labels and effects	Label stories	Endpoints, bends and curve controls

These are the standard definitions. A host can register a different anatomy—outline, body regions, values, behavior, minimum sizes and ports. Locks and application admission rules can further restrict editing. The inspector only exposes properties allowed by the selected element's definition.

Beyond the standard toolkit

The optional Shapes library adds registered shapes such as start, end, decision and entity. They use the same drawing, selection, text, connection and history machinery. For example, the entity uses a title and embedded table sections rather than introducing a second text editor. See building a library.

Shapes.line remains available to read older drawings. It is not a separate creation tool: use Path (P) for authored lines and curves, or Connector (L) for connections between elements.

What is configured where?

• Inspector: appearance and supported structural settings of the selected element.
• Canvas: placement, selection, resizing, path points, text and table editing.
• Shape definition: the shape's anatomy—outline, body parts (text regions, surfaces, images, widgets), values, ports, behavior and minimum/default sizes.

Adding another text region is a change to the definition's body, not an inspector operation. The default element catalog is not a promise that every element supports every property.