Monday, May 11, 2020

Draw.IO Integration with VS Code

Over the weekend, I saw a tweet announcing a new extension for VS Code. The extension "Draw.IO Integration "enables you to create good looking diagrams directly inside VS Code. Insane, I thought, then I downloaded it. I think a youthful view is that this is DOPE!

You install the extension directly from inside VS Code, create and open a new *.Drawio document and away you go. If you have used virtually any diagramming tool, the interface is immediately accessible.

Here is a screenshot of it working on my workstation:


As you can see, VS Code, up and running with my main workspace loaded and there in the module is a diagram too. It feels a LOT like Visio without (at least so far) the flakiness of Visio of late. The diagrams are not the nice polished ones you might be able to create using tools like PowerPoint, Visio, etc. But simple and BUILT-In.

When you are finished with the diagram, you can export it in various formats. The diagram above, rendered to PNG, looks like this;


There are many templates and, I'm sure, every possibility of more being added by the community over time.