ERPDesk

1. Getting started

When you open ERPDesk you'll see the welcome screen:

• Start a new diagram — pick a starting point:
  • Blank — an empty canvas.
  • Basic ER — two entities joined by a relationship.
  • Basic Class Diagram — a base class and a subclass.
  • Basic Flowchart — start → task → decision → end.
  • Basic Sequence — two lifelines exchanging a message.
• Recent files — reopen a diagram you worked on before (double-click it).
• Open file… — browse for an existing .umlproj diagram.

Pick any option and the editor opens.

2. The editor at a glance

• Left — Model Explorer (top) & Toolbox (bottom): the Explorer lists every diagram in your project and the shapes inside it; the Toolbox holds all the shapes you can add, grouped by diagram type.
• Centre — Diagram tabs & Canvas: a tab strip across the top lets you switch between diagrams; the canvas below is where you build the current one.
• Right — Properties: settings for whatever you currently have selected.
• Top — Menu & toolbar: file commands and quick actions.
• Bottom — Status bar: counts, the cursor's position, and the zoom level.

You can drag the dividers between the panels to resize them.

3. Working with multiple diagrams

A saved .umlproj file is a project that can hold many diagrams — for example an ER diagram, a class diagram, and a flowchart all in one place.

• Switch diagrams: click a tab above the canvas, or double-click a diagram in the Model Explorer.
• Add a diagram: click the ＋ button at the end of the tab strip.
• Close a diagram: click the ✕ on its tab (a project always keeps at least one diagram).
• Jump to a shape: double-click it in the Model Explorer to open its diagram and select it.

Each diagram keeps its own grid, snap, and background settings.

4. Adding shapes

There are three ways to add a shape:

1. Drag a shape from the toolbox onto the canvas and drop it where you want.
2. Click a shape in the toolbox to drop it in the middle of the view.
3. Double-click an empty spot on the canvas to add a basic node.

The toolbox has a tab for each diagram type (ER, Class, Process, Sequence), a search box at the top to find any shape by name, and a Recently used section so your common shapes are always close at hand.

5. Moving around the canvas

• Zoom: hold Ctrl and scroll the mouse wheel (zooms toward the cursor).
• Pan: hold the middle mouse button and drag. You can also scroll to move up/down, or hold Shift and scroll to move left/right.
• Fit to screen: click Fit in the toolbar (or View → Fit to screen) to frame your whole diagram.
• Reset zoom: click 100% to return to actual size.
• Auto-layout: click ⊞ Arrange (or View → Auto-layout diagram) to tidy a messy diagram automatically — nodes are organised into clean columns following their connections. It's a single action you can undo. (Imported SQL schemas are arranged this way for you.)

The current zoom level is always shown at the bottom-right.

6. Selecting and arranging

• Select a shape or connection by clicking it.
• Select several by dragging a box around them on an empty part of the canvas.
• Add to a selection by holding Ctrl while clicking.
• Move shapes by dragging them; selected shapes move together.
• Resize a selected shape using the small square handles around its edge.
• Snap to grid keeps everything tidy — toggle it in the toolbar or the Properties panel.

7. Connecting shapes

1. Click Connect in the toolbar to enter connect mode.
2. Drag from one shape to another to draw a connection between them.
3. Click Connect again to return to normal editing.

Select a connection to change its routing (straight, orthogonal, or curved), its arrowheads (none, open, filled, diamond, or composition), its line colour and style, and to add a label (for example a cardinality like 1, N, or 0..1).

8. Editing shape text

• Most shapes: select the shape and edit its Name in the Properties panel.
• Class, Interface, and Enum boxes: double-click any attribute or operation row to edit it. Press Enter to save and start a new row. Use the “+ attribute” and “+ operation” links to add rows. Leaving a row empty removes it.

9. The Properties panel

What you see depends on your selection:

• A shape: name, fill colour, border colour, border style and thickness, font size, and (for class shapes) the stereotype and an italic-name option.
• A connection: label, routing, line colour and style, and the start/end arrowheads.
• Nothing selected (canvas): grid size, snap-to-grid, and the canvas background colour.

Colours can be picked from the swatches or typed in as a hex value (e.g. #2F6FED). All changes apply instantly — there are no pop-up dialogs.

10. Undo, copy, and delete

• Undo / Redo: Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Y (or the arrows in the toolbar).
• Copy / Paste: Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V. Pasted shapes appear slightly offset.
• Delete: select something and press Delete (deleting a shape also removes its connections).

11. Saving and opening

• New: File → New (Ctrl+N).
• Open: File → Open… (Ctrl+O).
• Save / Save As: File → Save (Ctrl+S) or Save As…. Diagrams are saved as .umlproj files.
• Auto-save: your work is automatically backed up every couple of minutes, so you're protected if something unexpected happens.

The name of the open file is shown in the window title. An asterisk (*) next to it means you have unsaved changes. If you choose New, Open, or close the window while changes are unsaved, ERPDesk asks whether to save, discard, or cancel first — so you won't lose work by accident.

12. Designing tables and generating SQL

ERPDesk can turn a diagram of tables into a ready-to-run SQL script.

1. From the ER tab of the toolbox, add a Table (SQL) shape. It starts with an id primary key and a name column.
2. Select the table and, in the Properties panel, click Edit columns…. For each column set its name, type (INT, VARCHAR, DECIMAL, BOOLEAN, DATETIME, UUID, …), optional length/scale, and the flags: PK (primary key), Null, Uniq, Auto (auto-increment), and FK. For a foreign key, tick FK and fill in the referenced table and column.
3. Add as many tables as you need. The table box shows a 🔑 next to primary keys and 🔗 next to foreign keys.
4. Choose File → Export → As SQL (DDL). Pick your database — PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQL Server, or SQLite — and the script updates instantly. Copy it or Save it as a .sql file.

Importing existing SQL

Already have a database script? Choose File → Import SQL…, then paste your CREATE TABLE statements (or Load a .sql file) and click Import. ERPDesk reads the tables, columns, keys, and foreign keys and draws them as a new diagram — so you can visualise, edit, and re-export an existing schema. It understands the common SQL of all four supported databases.

13. Exporting and sharing

From File → Export you can save your diagram as:

• SQL (DDL) — a CREATE TABLE script for your database (see above).
• XMI (UML 2.x) — the standard UML interchange format. Open the resulting .xmi file in another UML tool such as Visual Paradigm, Enterprise Architect, StarUML, Modelio, MagicDraw or ArgoUML. ERPDesk also reads its own .xmi files back via File → Import XMI (UML)… — round-trip is lossless (layout, colours and table details are preserved). Files from other tools are imported as a UML model and laid out automatically.
• PNG — a high-resolution image.
• SVG — a scalable vector image (stays crisp at any size).
• PDF — a single-page document.

You can also export just the selected shapes as a PNG, or use File → Copy as Image to copy the whole diagram to the clipboard and paste it straight into another app.

Sharing your model with another UML tool

1. File → Export → As XMI (UML 2.x)… — save the .xmi file.
2. In the target UML tool, use its Import → XMI command and pick the file.

Layout typically does not survive a hop to another tool (each vendor reads XMI slightly differently), but classes, attributes, associations and table structures do. Round-trips stay lossless when you import the file back into ERPDesk.

14. Light and dark mode

Switch between themes from View → Dark mode. Your choice is remembered the next time you open ERPDesk.

15. Keyboard shortcuts

Press ? at any time to open the full shortcut cheat sheet. The essentials:

16. A 60-second first diagram

1. From the welcome screen, choose Blank (or a template).
2. Drag three shapes from the toolbox onto the canvas.
3. Click Connect, then drag between the shapes to link them.
4. Select each shape and give it a name in the Properties panel.
5. File → Export → As PNG… to share your diagram.

That's it — happy diagramming!

17. About ERPDesk

Choose Help → About ERPDesk… to see the product version, build number, and a link to backendside.com. The build number bumps with every release, so it doubles as a quick way to confirm which version you're running.