Move and Change Elements

Learn how to edit a diagram while modeling, change elements while modeling, and add space to the canvas wherever you want. Learn how to change element attributes to adapt modeling elements.

While modeling, you can change the position of elements and labels.

You can also adjust the space between elements or change the canvas size.

You can change the element type.

Move Elements and Labels

To move an element or a label to a new position, select and drag it.

Rename Elements

To change the name of a label, select the element. Available dictionary entries are suggested automatically.

Change Element Size

Select the element.
Choose the bottom right corner or top left corner and drag the corner.
Note

For more options, keep one or more of the following keys pressed while you drag the element:
- Alt: Resize without snapping to other elements and orientation lines
- Ctrl: Resize in every direction
- Shift: Resize the element proportionally

Adjust Canvas Space

You have two options to adjust the canvas area.

You can add or remove space between elements.
You can shrink or extend the whole canvas.

To add or remove space between elements, follow these steps:

Enable the space adjusting function by choosing (adjust space) in the toolbar, or use the shortcut Ctrl + M.

The mouse cursor turns into a cross and two lines are displayed on the canvas.
Where you want to adjust the space, choose, hold and move the cursor.

Space is added or removed depending on your movements.

Example

Example:

This works in all directions.
Release the mouse button.
Disable the space adjusting function by choosing (adjust space) in the toolbar, or use the shortcut Ctrl + M.

To shrink or extend the whole canvas, follow these steps:

Move you cursor to one edge of the canvas.

Two arrow icons are displayed, (inward-pointing arrow) and (outward-pointing arrow).
Choose the (inward-pointing arrow) to shrink the canvas, choose the outward-pointing arrow (outward-pointing arrow) to expand the canvas.

Zoom

To view the complete diagram on your screen, use the zoom icons, (zoom) and (zoom in).

To make everything on the canvas larger, choose (zoom in).
To make everything on the canvas smaller, choose (zoom out).

To return to the standard zoom level and view the diagram in its default size, choose (Save).

To fit the diagram to your canvas size, choose (fit).

Change the Element Type

You can change the element type. For example, in BPMN the following transformations are possible:

Task to subprocess
Plain start event to message start event
Collapsed pool to expanded pool

To transform an element, follow these steps:

Select the element you want to transform.
Choose (transform) below the element.
Select the new element type.

The element is transformed.

In the following example an exclusive gateway is changed into an parallel gateway.

Edit Attributes

Modeling elements have several properties you can edit. These properties are called attributes. You can use attributes to change the appearance of an element (for example the background color or label). Attributes can also be necessary to execute a process, for example the decision logic in a DMN diagram is an attribute.

You edit attributes in the attribute panel on the right side of the editor.

To change the attributes for one element, select the element and open the attributes panel.
To change diagram-wide attributes, choose any empty space on the canvas and open the attributes panel.

You can change attributes for one element and diagram-wide attributes.

Select all elements of the same type

Select all elements of the same type to change them at once.

To select all elements of one type, select one element and press Ctrl + I. All elements of the same type are selected.
To select all elements of multiple types, select elements from each type and press Ctrl + I. All elements of the chosen types are selected.

Attributes in SAP Signavio Process Collaboration Hub

Attributes are displayed when diagrams are viewed in SAP Signavio Process Collaboration Hub. Which attributes are shown for SAP Signavio Process Collaboration Hub users depends on visibility settings for their user group.

Attributes can be populated from a linked diagram if an attribute with the same ID is available for both the linking element and the linked diagram. For details, see section Displayed attributes of SAP Signavio Process Collaboration Hub user guide.

Your workspace administrator can create attributes with the same ID for different elements. The workspace administrator guide explains how to do that in section Add and manage custom attributes.