--- title: Creating a diagram description: As a Designer, you can use the integrated Modeler to design process diagrams. search: tags: - anleitung - diagramm - modellieren - zeichnen - bpmn - modeler --- As a **Designer**, you can use the integrated **Modeler** to design process diagrams. ## Prerequisites [#voraussetzungen] You are a **BPM Manager** or **Designer**. You have named and described a process draft. ## Context [#zusammenhang] With the **Modeler**, you can create processes easily and use all basic BPMN elements while doing so. The integrated **Modeler** supports the capture of workflows. Starting from a process goal, the necessary process steps are captured as tasks. A task represents a single, self-contained activity that is not broken down any further. A task can be typed according to how it is carried out. The process steps are connected in the correct order by flows. Alternative workflows that take different conditions into account are branched by gateways and, where applicable, merged again. Data objects, which temporarily store process-specific data within the process, and data stores, which store data both across processes and beyond the end of the process, allow all process-relevant information to be assigned. The process diagram you have created can be saved as a process draft and submitted to the Process Space as a process version (revision). It can also be saved as a graphic so that you can insert it into other documents. Restriction: You can also export the process diagram as a BPMN file for a modeling tool in order to use that tool's integration options for modeled data and software systems. However, process diagrams imported via a BPMN file can no longer be edited in the **Modeler**. The **Modeler** offers the following working areas. ### Top toolbar [#obere-symbolleiste] The toolbar offers functions for the draft as a whole. When you position the mouse pointer over an icon, the function is displayed. - **New draft** - **Open draft** - **Save draft**, **Save draft as** - **Delete draft** - **Import BPMN file as draft** - **Export diagram** - **Undo** - **Redo** - **Translate into other languages** - **Print draft** - **Change participants** **Prerequisite** for participants: Participants can only be added once the process draft has been saved. Participants can only be added if they have permission to model. Only **one participant at a time** can work on a draft. Two or more participants **cannot** work on a draft simultaneously. ### Left toolbar [#linke-symbolleiste] The toolbar offers functions for creating draft elements, some of which are also offered in the context menu of the draft elements. When you click an icon, a corresponding element is created and follows the mouse pointer so that you can position it. ### Zoom icons [#zoom-symbole] You can change the display size incrementally within a certain range or fit the diagram size to the window. ### Properties [#eigenschaften] The **Properties** area on the right can be expanded and collapsed. On the **Title and description** tab, you can enter a **Name** and **Description** for the process or for a selected element. On the **Fill color and text/border color** tab, you can define the appearance of the elements if the **Color** option is activated on the **Modeler settings** tab under **Manage Process Space**. The changes you make are then available to all modelers as the default. On the **Global and local properties** tab, you can define properties of the process elements. For tasks, the global property **Execution time** is managed. ### Context menu for elements in the modeling area [#kontextmenü-für-elemente-im-modellierungsbereich] The context menu for an element appears when you click the element. It offers, for example, the elements that can be connected to the selected element. In addition, the **element type** can be defined. ### Keyboard shortcuts [#tastenkombinationen] Process elements can be copied from one draft to another draft. Select the process elements you want to copy. Copy them to your clipboard using the key combination \[Ctrl\] + \[C\] (Apple: \[CTRL\] + \[C\]). You can paste the copied process elements from your clipboard into another draft — for example one you have opened in a second browser window — using the key combination \[Ctrl\] + \[V\] (Apple: \[CTRL\] + \[V\]). ### BPMN.IO info icon [#bpmnio-infosymbol] At the bottom right there is an icon that opens an info box with a link to [bpmn.io](http://bpmn.io/). The website provides information about the technical background of the **Modeler**. Your process draft only becomes visible to others once you add it to the Process Space as a process version (revision). You can therefore design it as you like first and save it as a "private" draft. ## How to proceed [#so-gehst-du-vor] 1. Under **Drafts**, click **Create new draft**. The entry form for the process draft appears. 2. In the entry form for the process draft, click **Open Modeler**. The integrated Modeler appears. 3. To add an element, click a diagram node and use the context menu, or click an icon in the left toolbar and drag it to a free position. The element is created with a connection when added from the context menu, and without one when added from the toolbar. 4. To create a connection between two elements, click the element and then the connection icon in the context menu and drag the connection to the element you want to connect to, or click the connection icon in the left toolbar and then click the elements you want to connect one after the other. The connection between the elements is created. 5. To name an element, enter its name in the **Name** input field in the expandable **Properties** area on the right. The name appears in the diagram. 6. To describe an element, enter its description in the **Description** input field. 7. To type an element, click **Change type** in the context menu and select the type of the element. 8. To save the diagram, click **Save draft** in the top toolbar. The draft is saved under the name you entered. It appears on the **Drafts** page. 9. To save the diagram as a graphic or BPMN file, click the file type you want in the **Export diagram** submenu in the top toolbar. The draft is saved in the default download directory. 10. To add the diagram to the Process Space, click **Submit** at the top. The **Submit as process revision** dialog appears. The draft is added to the Process Space under the name you entered.