6 ms·

Turn any diagram image into an editable Draw.io file. No more redrawing

75 points by matthewshere 1y ago

account-5 1y ago
I really like draw.io, I've used it for a number of things including wireframing an app and creating cheatsheets for things. It's definitely not as frictionless as excalidraw though. Excalidraw, whilst not as powerful as draw.io has the interface down correctly.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- jimmySixDOF 1y ago
  tldraw is also something very easy to use but surprisingly powerful and I know they are compared a lot to Excalidraw, not so sure about draw.io - but could be worth adding to your list. It is a very extendable library with some fun genai hooks like makereal.tldraw
- noahjk 1y ago
  What do people use for creating artifacts at their jobs? Architecture diagrams, data flow diagrams, sequence diagrams, network diagrams, entity-relationship diagrams ... I'd really like to find an option which can preferably be version controlled and doesn't require hard-to-remember schema (ex. plantUML). At work it's always tough to find something which works, and which is free or already licensed (no chance to get new licenses), and which is easy enough for teammates of varying technical abilities to contribute to. For Arch Diagrams, most people seem to jump to Draw.IO, which is nice, but I'm not sure how easily it can be version controlled (although I haven't tried). At work it usually falls into the "did you put your latest version on SharePoint" black-hole (we don't pay for the cloud syncing version of draw.io). I wanted to try Figma, since it's at least a bit more collaborative, but there aren't any good first-party templates, so maybe it's not the right place, either. For DFDs, I'd like to try Mermaid, or D2, or PlantUML (scared by the syntax on that one, though). I've not tried any of these, right now we usually do these in draw.io too, but I feel like code-defined ones would be an easier to maintain option and can live in a repo easier. Sequence Diagrams are currently usually done using the sequencediagram.org engine, which I'm not a huge fan of, but at least it's relatively easily handled text. I don't think there was a good VS Code integration last time I checked (I think it was some web emulator, not a built-in engine?). ERDs, I'd also like to find a good local tool to probably just use SQL on the backend, so that it's one less conversion. I'm open to all suggestions for that, though.
  - xtracto 1y ago
    I've been doing diagrams with Mermaid. The beauty is that I use Gemini to ask it to add stuff to the diagram. And there are a bunch of plug-ins for Google docs to visualize the diagrams. I just wish Confluence had a free way to do it.
ThouYS 1y ago
"sign in to convert" ... sigh
- AIorNot 1y ago
  They need to make money - should the have open sourced the tool?
  - majkinetor 1y ago
    They should have let us tried the tool without signing in, that is only natural. Why would I give you my time and my personal information because you claim you do something? It is deceptive and unfair to our time to ask me to sign in as the final step. Instantly closed. The new generation of developers should learn some manners.
    - zekrioca 1y ago
      They are utilitarians, they do not care about manners. I agree with your main point.
      - matthewshere 1y ago
        That's a sharp but insightful comment. We're sorry that our initial design gave you that impression. Our intention was never to ignore "manners" for utility, but we see now how a forced sign-up does exactly that. We made a mistake. We are committed to improving the user experience, and based on this feedback, we have now implemented a no-login trial. We'd welcome you to try it and see that we're serious about getting this right.
    - efskap 1y ago
      These multi modal LLMs are too expensive to run for that
      - MOARDONGZPLZ 1y ago
        Are you saying they want to reduce the number of people trying it out with friction?
albert_e 1y ago
Suggestion for an add-on feature ... Youtube videos that are lectures with slide shows .. or PDF slide decks ..can also be a input / starting point..with some additional detection and parsing. Both can have multiple images in them.
- matthewshere 1y ago
  This is an excellent idea, thank you so much for suggesting it. You're right, parsing lecture videos and PDFs to extract diagrams would be a powerful feature. We've officially added it to our backlog. We're excited about this one and will prioritize it. We genuinely appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts. Please keep the great ideas coming!
itsrg 1y ago
[flagged]
supriyo-biswas 1y ago
There’s also a “include a copy of my diagram” feature when exporting an image from drawio, which partially overlaps with the use case of this app (assuming the export in question was done with this feature enabled).
woodylondon 1y ago
Once signed up and wanted to test once says no credits so this post is really just an advert
- matthewshere 1y ago
  You can test it now. We have added free credits to all accounts.
solids 1y ago
LLMs work great with mermaid
subhobroto 1y ago
This is a very well done site but perhaps a bit too much of a demand test to be on HN which is extremely tech heavy (the typical reader is likely to wonder "I can already ask an LLM to do this. Why would I pay this company to do this for me?"). This would do very well on other, less tech heavy sites. I would also suggest some changes. Above the fold, there's a lot of pitch how Draw.io requires "No credit card, no trial periods, no BS." and "It's genuinely free - has been for years, always will be. That's why millions use it, and why converting your images to Draw.io format makes so much sense. Your converted files will always be editable, no subscription required" Below the fold and at the very bottom, this service itself starts off at $5/mo on sale right now. I would imagine this would confuse people. They might interpret that this service is free too, then be suprised at the "no free tier" and some are going to be outright angry and very vocal about it. So I would change the messaging along the lines of "We help you convert images into Draw.io so you pay us just once for the diagram you want converted" To enhance the message, I would further say "This is how much we sponsor Draw.io for enabling our own business" and write blog posts about the struggles to build the service or even open source the methods to fine-tune a model to do the conversion. Good luck, this is valuable!
- matthewshere 1y ago
  Wow. Thank you for such a thoughtful, detailed, and genuinely helpful comment. Honestly, after a day of fielding a lot of (justified) criticism, reading something so constructive and encouraging is incredibly moving for our team. We're trying to create a good experience for everyone, and it's clear we've made some major mistakes. You are absolutely right about the core problem in our messaging. In our effort to praise Draw.io, we completely missed that we were setting a misleading expectation for our own service. Your suggestions on how to fix this—clarifying the value proposition, sponsoring Draw.io, and sharing our journey—are all fantastic ideas. They're not just tweaks; they're a roadmap for how we can build trust and communicate better. We'll be discussing your advice as a team and will use it to guide our next steps. Thank you again for your generosity and guidance. It is immensely valuable.
jacon1 1y ago
Weird choice that you can't even see an example of the image->draw.io conversion without creating an account
- gavinray 1y ago
  I thought so too...
- matthewshere 1y ago
  Great catch, and thank you for pointing this out. That wasn't a deliberate choice but a bug in our front end. We've just pushed a fix for it. The showcase examples should be visible to everyone now without an account.
mellosouls 1y ago
This is a paid service but the website wording piggybacks on Draw.io to imply it's a free service, I'd avoid it as it comes across as very underhand. "It's that free diagramming tool that just works. No credit card, no trial periods, no BS", etc
- riedel 1y ago
  I just thought the same and thought this was really some dark pattern not adding any trust. Also there is no really good examples or performance metrics. There is stuff on GitHub that actually does similar stuff [0] [1] . We tried some pipelines a year ago for a project (understanding compliance relevant process diagrams) and it was still quite a challenge . Wonder what the state is now with all those vision llms and even if commercial how good that stuff is. [0] https://github.com/Zackriya-Solutions/diagram2graph https://github.com/Zackriya-Solutions/diagram2graph [1] https://github.com/modhtom/Pic2Chart https://github.com/modhtom/Pic2Chart
- matthewshere 1y ago
  I really appreciate you calling this out, and I'm genuinely sorry for the bad experience. The wording was misleading, and we should have been much clearer. To be transparent, when we started, the AI model costs quickly became unsustainable with purely free usage. We had to introduce a paid model to cover these costs and ensure we could keep the service running and improving. It was a difficult decision, and we clearly fumbled the communication. We've since added a free trial with credits for every new user. I know we made a poor first impression, but I hope you'll consider giving it another try. Your feedback is incredibly valuable and helps us do better.
goshx 1y ago
deceiving.
- matthewshere 1y ago
  We're very sorry that our actions came across as deceiving. That was never our goal, but we understand that the impact is more important than the intent. To be transparent, we were struggling to manage the high costs of the AI models and made a clumsy decision to put a wall up too early. It was the wrong choice, and we apologize. We've listened to the feedback and have since corrected our mistake. You can now try the product without signing in, and if you do register, you'll get 5 free credits to test it properly. We hope this action demonstrates our true intention, which is to build a product people genuinely like and trust. We'd be grateful if you'd consider trying it again.
geor9e 1y ago
On first try: "Insufficient credits. Please purchase more credits to continue." Flagged for not gratifying my intellectual curiosity.
- matthewshere 1y ago
  That’s a terrible first impression, and we are sincerely sorry. Failing to gratify your intellectual curiosity is the worst possible outcome for us. You were right to flag it. The onboarding flow was broken, and we've since fixed it based on this feedback. We've now introduced two key changes: 1. A no-login trial to let you test the tool immediately. 2. 5 free credits for every user who signs up, ensuring you can run several tests before seeing any paywall. We understand if the ship has sailed, but if your curiosity remains, we would be grateful for a second chance.
gukoff 1y ago
Draw.io already allows creating editable PNGs and SVGs: it embeds the diagram definition in the image metadata. You can then import this image like you would import any other .drawio diagram The VSCode integration is the cherry on top. All files with the correct extension (such as xxx.drawio.png) will automatically open for edit in the draw.io UI embedded in the IDE. I use this feature often to build on top of the previously made diagrams.

75 points by matthewshere 1y ago

I really like draw.io, I've used it for a number of things including wireframing an app and creating cheatsheets for things. It's definitely not as frictionless as excalidraw though. Excalidraw, whilst not as powerful as draw.io has the interface down correctly.

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
jimmySixDOF 1y ago
tldraw is also something very easy to use but surprisingly powerful and I know they are compared a lot to Excalidraw, not so sure about draw.io - but could be worth adding to your list. It is a very extendable library with some fun genai hooks like makereal.tldraw
noahjk 1y ago
What do people use for creating artifacts at their jobs? Architecture diagrams, data flow diagrams, sequence diagrams, network diagrams, entity-relationship diagrams ... I'd really like to find an option which can preferably be version controlled and doesn't require hard-to-remember schema (ex. plantUML). At work it's always tough to find something which works, and which is free or already licensed (no chance to get new licenses), and which is easy enough for teammates of varying technical abilities to contribute to. For Arch Diagrams, most people seem to jump to Draw.IO, which is nice, but I'm not sure how easily it can be version controlled (although I haven't tried). At work it usually falls into the "did you put your latest version on SharePoint" black-hole (we don't pay for the cloud syncing version of draw.io). I wanted to try Figma, since it's at least a bit more collaborative, but there aren't any good first-party templates, so maybe it's not the right place, either. For DFDs, I'd like to try Mermaid, or D2, or PlantUML (scared by the syntax on that one, though). I've not tried any of these, right now we usually do these in draw.io too, but I feel like code-defined ones would be an easier to maintain option and can live in a repo easier. Sequence Diagrams are currently usually done using the sequencediagram.org engine, which I'm not a huge fan of, but at least it's relatively easily handled text. I don't think there was a good VS Code integration last time I checked (I think it was some web emulator, not a built-in engine?). ERDs, I'd also like to find a good local tool to probably just use SQL on the backend, so that it's one less conversion. I'm open to all suggestions for that, though.
- xtracto 1y ago
  I've been doing diagrams with Mermaid. The beauty is that I use Gemini to ask it to add stuff to the diagram. And there are a bunch of plug-ins for Google docs to visualize the diagrams. I just wish Confluence had a free way to do it.

ThouYS 1y ago

"sign in to convert" ... sigh

AIorNot 1y ago
They need to make money - should the have open sourced the tool?
- majkinetor 1y ago
  They should have let us tried the tool without signing in, that is only natural. Why would I give you my time and my personal information because you claim you do something? It is deceptive and unfair to our time to ask me to sign in as the final step. Instantly closed. The new generation of developers should learn some manners.
  - zekrioca 1y ago
    They are utilitarians, they do not care about manners. I agree with your main point.
    - matthewshere 1y ago
      That's a sharp but insightful comment. We're sorry that our initial design gave you that impression. Our intention was never to ignore "manners" for utility, but we see now how a forced sign-up does exactly that. We made a mistake. We are committed to improving the user experience, and based on this feedback, we have now implemented a no-login trial. We'd welcome you to try it and see that we're serious about getting this right.
  - efskap 1y ago
    These multi modal LLMs are too expensive to run for that
    - MOARDONGZPLZ 1y ago
      Are you saying they want to reduce the number of people trying it out with friction?

albert_e 1y ago

Suggestion for an add-on feature ... Youtube videos that are lectures with slide shows .. or PDF slide decks ..can also be a input / starting point..with some additional detection and parsing. Both can have multiple images in them.

matthewshere 1y ago
This is an excellent idea, thank you so much for suggesting it. You're right, parsing lecture videos and PDFs to extract diagrams would be a powerful feature. We've officially added it to our backlog. We're excited about this one and will prioritize it. We genuinely appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts. Please keep the great ideas coming!

itsrg 1y ago

[flagged]

supriyo-biswas 1y ago

There’s also a “include a copy of my diagram” feature when exporting an image from drawio, which partially overlaps with the use case of this app (assuming the export in question was done with this feature enabled).

woodylondon 1y ago

Once signed up and wanted to test once says no credits so this post is really just an advert

matthewshere 1y ago
You can test it now. We have added free credits to all accounts.

solids 1y ago

LLMs work great with mermaid

subhobroto 1y ago

This is a very well done site but perhaps a bit too much of a demand test to be on HN which is extremely tech heavy (the typical reader is likely to wonder "I can already ask an LLM to do this. Why would I pay this company to do this for me?"). This would do very well on other, less tech heavy sites. I would also suggest some changes. Above the fold, there's a lot of pitch how Draw.io requires "No credit card, no trial periods, no BS." and "It's genuinely free - has been for years, always will be. That's why millions use it, and why converting your images to Draw.io format makes so much sense. Your converted files will always be editable, no subscription required" Below the fold and at the very bottom, this service itself starts off at $5/mo on sale right now. I would imagine this would confuse people. They might interpret that this service is free too, then be suprised at the "no free tier" and some are going to be outright angry and very vocal about it. So I would change the messaging along the lines of "We help you convert images into Draw.io so you pay us just once for the diagram you want converted" To enhance the message, I would further say "This is how much we sponsor Draw.io for enabling our own business" and write blog posts about the struggles to build the service or even open source the methods to fine-tune a model to do the conversion. Good luck, this is valuable!

matthewshere 1y ago
Wow. Thank you for such a thoughtful, detailed, and genuinely helpful comment. Honestly, after a day of fielding a lot of (justified) criticism, reading something so constructive and encouraging is incredibly moving for our team. We're trying to create a good experience for everyone, and it's clear we've made some major mistakes. You are absolutely right about the core problem in our messaging. In our effort to praise Draw.io, we completely missed that we were setting a misleading expectation for our own service. Your suggestions on how to fix this—clarifying the value proposition, sponsoring Draw.io, and sharing our journey—are all fantastic ideas. They're not just tweaks; they're a roadmap for how we can build trust and communicate better. We'll be discussing your advice as a team and will use it to guide our next steps. Thank you again for your generosity and guidance. It is immensely valuable.

jacon1 1y ago

Weird choice that you can't even see an example of the image->draw.io conversion without creating an account

gavinray 1y ago
I thought so too...
matthewshere 1y ago
Great catch, and thank you for pointing this out. That wasn't a deliberate choice but a bug in our front end. We've just pushed a fix for it. The showcase examples should be visible to everyone now without an account.

mellosouls 1y ago

This is a paid service but the website wording piggybacks on Draw.io to imply it's a free service, I'd avoid it as it comes across as very underhand. "It's that free diagramming tool that just works. No credit card, no trial periods, no BS", etc

riedel 1y ago
I just thought the same and thought this was really some dark pattern not adding any trust. Also there is no really good examples or performance metrics. There is stuff on GitHub that actually does similar stuff [0] [1] . We tried some pipelines a year ago for a project (understanding compliance relevant process diagrams) and it was still quite a challenge . Wonder what the state is now with all those vision llms and even if commercial how good that stuff is. [0] https://github.com/Zackriya-Solutions/diagram2graph https://github.com/Zackriya-Solutions/diagram2graph [1] https://github.com/modhtom/Pic2Chart https://github.com/modhtom/Pic2Chart
matthewshere 1y ago
I really appreciate you calling this out, and I'm genuinely sorry for the bad experience. The wording was misleading, and we should have been much clearer. To be transparent, when we started, the AI model costs quickly became unsustainable with purely free usage. We had to introduce a paid model to cover these costs and ensure we could keep the service running and improving. It was a difficult decision, and we clearly fumbled the communication. We've since added a free trial with credits for every new user. I know we made a poor first impression, but I hope you'll consider giving it another try. Your feedback is incredibly valuable and helps us do better.

goshx 1y ago

deceiving.

matthewshere 1y ago
We're very sorry that our actions came across as deceiving. That was never our goal, but we understand that the impact is more important than the intent. To be transparent, we were struggling to manage the high costs of the AI models and made a clumsy decision to put a wall up too early. It was the wrong choice, and we apologize. We've listened to the feedback and have since corrected our mistake. You can now try the product without signing in, and if you do register, you'll get 5 free credits to test it properly. We hope this action demonstrates our true intention, which is to build a product people genuinely like and trust. We'd be grateful if you'd consider trying it again.

geor9e 1y ago

On first try: "Insufficient credits. Please purchase more credits to continue." Flagged for not gratifying my intellectual curiosity.

matthewshere 1y ago
That’s a terrible first impression, and we are sincerely sorry. Failing to gratify your intellectual curiosity is the worst possible outcome for us. You were right to flag it. The onboarding flow was broken, and we've since fixed it based on this feedback. We've now introduced two key changes: 1. A no-login trial to let you test the tool immediately. 2. 5 free credits for every user who signs up, ensuring you can run several tests before seeing any paywall. We understand if the ship has sailed, but if your curiosity remains, we would be grateful for a second chance.

gukoff 1y ago

Draw.io already allows creating editable PNGs and SVGs: it embeds the diagram definition in the image metadata. You can then import this image like you would import any other .drawio diagram The VSCode integration is the cherry on top. All files with the correct extension (such as xxx.drawio.png) will automatically open for edit in the draw.io UI embedded in the IDE. I use this feature often to build on top of the previously made diagrams.