Freehand shapes are general shapes that can be added to diagram for annotation purposes. We can use pencil or pen shapes for sketching paths, we also can add solid shapes like stars, rectangles and arrow shapes.

In this article, we will demonstrate the use of freehand shapes for sketching a path to surround a critical path in Business Process Diagram.

Diagram Layer is a feature to help categorizing shapes into different distinct layers. We can use a separate layer for annotation, we also can place alternative paths of a flow in a separate layer. Since layers can be shown or hide, it provides an ideal solution for controlling the portion of diagram to appear on diagram.

In Visual Paradigm, shape name is aligned center horizontally, and top or middle vertically, depending on the characteristic of shapes. It is possible to realign the shape name, which is useful for language that is written from right to left, like Modern Hebrew. In this article, we will go through this feature with a diagram constructed with Hebrew alphabets.

All shapes have their default minimum size. Users are not allowed to resize shapes to smaller than the minimum size, which help to ensure the shapes are compact yet clear enough to be seen on a diagram under normal conditions. The minimum size can be determined by fitting a shape's size.

When modeling a complex diagram, we may come across a situation where connectors are intersected with each other. Line Jump is a feature for decorating the intersection, which makes it easier to identify connection paths.

Project referencing is a feature that enable us to reference to an external project, and uses its model element in our own project. With this feature, we can analyze projects' data by visualizing different projects' model elements in a single diagram. Besides, we can organize our model in a more disciplined approach by having one Visual Paradigm project per library project. This also help slim up projects by separating part of it to isolated projects.
In this article, we will see how to reference to another project, and will go through some examples of incorporating referenced model data in various kinds of diagrams.