Drawings

Create sketches, floor plans and simple diagrams directly in VAULO and keep editing them later. Every change is saved as a new version, and a shared library keeps recurring elements ready for your whole team.

With drawings you create sketches, floor plans or simple diagrams right inside a folder – in a hand-drawn style, without an external tool. A drawing is an ordinary file: you can share it, download it, add metadata and keep editing it at any time.

Drawings are an experimental feature. Turn them on under Experimental features → Drawings (see Experimental features). Existing drawings can be viewed without the feature.

Create a drawing

Open the folder the drawing should go into.
Click Create drawing in the header. On a phone, the entry is in the folder's + menu.
The drawing editor opens full screen. Draw with the tools in the top bar – rectangle, diamond, ellipse, arrow, line, freehand, text and image.
Enter a name at the top left and click Save.

Saving runs the drawing through the same steps as any upload: if your organization has required fields, VAULO asks for them. If the folder already holds a file with the same name, you can add the drawing as a new version, keep it as a separate file, or skip it.

If you cancel the required fields or skip the file, nothing is lost: the editor opens again with your drawing.

View and edit a drawing

The detail view shows the drawing itself – you can pan and zoom. Grids and shares show a preview image.

To edit, click Edit drawing in the detail view. Save becomes available after a change; saving creates a new version of the file, and earlier states stay in the version history. Editing requires the permission to create versions.

Escape does not close the editor – use it while drawing to clear a selection or leave a tool.
Cancel asks first when you have unsaved changes.

Drawings from elsewhere

Drawings are stored as .excalidraw files. You can upload such files too, for example from excalidraw.com – VAULO recognises them as drawings and you can edit them right away. A downloaded drawing opens on excalidraw.com as well.

Library

The library collects elements you need again and again – symbols, furniture for floor plans or building blocks for diagrams. It belongs to your organization: all members see the same elements and can add new ones.

Open the library in the editor via Library at the top right.
To add an element of your own, select it on the canvas, right-click it and choose Add to library.
Drag an element from the library onto the canvas to use it.

The library shows the sections Personal library (elements you added) and Excalidraw library (elements taken over from the library site). In VAULO both apply to your whole organization.

Take over libraries from the library site

In the library, click Browse libraries. The public library site opens in a new tab.
Pick a library there and click Add to Excalidraw.
VAULO opens in another tab and shows how many elements will be added. Confirm with Add to library.

An open editor shows the new elements immediately – your drawing in the first tab stays untouched. Elements already in the library are not added twice. Only libraries from the official library site are accepted.