Shapes panel

The Shapes panel is a catalog that opens on the right edge and holds ready-made shape sets and the libraries you’ve imported. You click a tile to add the shape to the canvas.

How to open it

• Open the Shapes panel from the panel bar on the right edge; or
• More tools (⋯) on the bottom toolbar → More shapes; or
• Main menu → View → Show → Shapes panel.

The header contains the panel name and a close button.

Search

The Search shapes box at the top filters shapes by their label and section heading; Esc clears the search. During a search, matching sections open automatically.

Sections

The panel consists of collapsible sections:

• Ready-made sets: built-in sets such as Sequence Diagram, Flowchart, and UML. (Basic shapes have been moved to the Shapes dropdown in the toolbar.)
• Libraries you’ve imported: each .letdrawlib appears as its own section.

In each section:

• Use the arrow in the heading to expand/collapse the section.
• Rename the section with the pencil icon (or by double-clicking the heading).
• Use × to hide the section (if it’s an imported library, this removes it).
• Drag section headings to change their order (persistent).
• Large libraries with many items are split into category sub-groups; categories start collapsed with their count and open on click (for speed in packages with hundreds of icons).

Using shapes

• Clicking a tile either selects the tool (you drag the shape out onto the canvas) or adds a multi-element composition (such as an actor, class box, or lifeline) to the visible center of the canvas.
• Library tiles add their own elements to the canvas as-is.

Library management

Imported library tiles have a checkbox. When you select tiles, an Actions menu (⋯ + selection count) appears in the search row:

• New library from selection: name your selection and package it as a new library of your own.
• Move selection to library: move your selection into a library you created.
• Save .letdrawlib: download your selection as a .letdrawlib file.
• Delete: remove the selected tiles.

Placement and size

• The panel’s position is set from Main menu → Preferences → Other settings: Right (docked to the edge, default) or Draggable (a free window you move anywhere by the handle at the top).
• If width resizing is enabled, you can change the panel’s width by dragging its left edge.

Adding and discovering libraries

• In the empty state (when all sections are hidden), the panel says “No shapes; click to add” and lets you import a .letdrawlib.
• The Browse library button at the bottom opens the shapes.letdraw.com catalog in a new tab.
• To add a library from a file, see Add shape; for the catalog and the concept, see the Shape library pages.