Wikipedia:How to draw a diagram with Dia

Dia 0.97.1 is an Open Source cross platform diagramming program. It is very powerful, easy to use, and free!

To begin using Dia, you first need to download the program and install it.

If you are using Microsoft Windows you can download the windows installer here.

If you are using Fedora 7 or newer you can install dia using 'yum install dia', or using the package manager.

If you are using Ubuntu 10.04 or newer you can find the program by searching for it in add/remove programs.

After the program is installed you can start the program by clicking on the Dia shortcut under the start menu or application menu if you are using Ubuntu.

Dia is very powerful, but simple to use. Below I will outline many of the tools that you can use to manipulate objects in your drawing.

Starting on the left you will find a handful of simple tools. Use the pointer button to move objects on the screen. Use the cursor button to change the text of a text object. Use the magnify button to zoom in. Use the button with four arrows to move around the diagram. Use the text button to add text to your diagram. The next 9 buttons are used to add shapes and lines to the diagram. Experiment with them they are pretty much self explanatory. Below is a drop down list that allows you to choose from several groups of special objects that can be used in your diagram.

To the right there is a grid where you will add objects. Objects can be re-sized, moved, deleted, copied, and pasted. Many objects also have special properties. Double clicking the object will allow you to change various properties like color, width, font and so on.

I like Dia because it's easy to use, powerful, and free. It's capable of doing many of the same things that Microsoft Visio can do but for free!

This tutorial aims to instruct a beginner on the basic principles of vector graphics. There are several important vector graphics programs that allow you to do very fancy things but this tutorial is not going to use them. Instead you will be shown how to use the drawing tools that come with Dia, a GTK+ based diagram creation program.

Getting Started

Start the app with:

dia

Click on File/New. You are now ready to populate your diagram.

Notice the main window layout:

+-------------------------+
|          Menu.          |
+-------------------------+
|Pointer and basic shapes |
+-------------------------+
|   Style/shape library   |
+-------------------------+
|Shapes for chosen library|
+-------------------------+
|  Colors and line width  |
+-------+-----------+-----+
| first |line style | last|
| arrow |           |arrow|
+-------+-----------+-----+

Using a combination of these tools you can make any shape you desire.

Like The Gimp, Dia depends heavily on a menu on the right mouse button inside the diagram. That menu contains all the diagram-specific actions and a few other things, so you almost never have to find the menu on the toolbox.

Limitations

As of September 2006, Dia's SVG output is buggy and may not produce the desired outcome. Some problems may be fixed by importing Dia SVG output to inkscape. Please preview SVG images before uploading them.