Tutorial: Create a Software Architecture Diagram

This tutorial walks through creating a system architecture diagram in DrawMotive, covering shapes, connectors, text labels, and constraints.

What You'll Build

A typical three-tier architecture diagram showing a frontend, backend API, and database layer with service connections.

Step 1: Set Up the Layout

1. Open a new diagram in DrawMotive
2. Zoom out slightly (Ctrl+-) to give yourself room to work

Step 2: Create the Service Boxes

Create rectangles for each component in your system:

1. Select the Rectangle tool
2. Draw a rectangle for the "Web Frontend" — make it roughly 150x80 units
3. Draw a second rectangle below and to the right for "API Server"
4. Draw a third rectangle below that for "Database"
5. Add more rectangles as needed: "Auth Service", "Cache", "Message Queue"

Tip: Use the grid to keep rectangles aligned. If you want precise sizing, apply a Line Length constraint to the rectangle edges.

Step 3: Add Labels

1. Select the Text tool
2. Click inside the "Web Frontend" rectangle and type the label
3. Repeat for each component

Alternatively, double-click a rectangle to add text directly to it.

Step 4: Connect Components

1. Select the Line tool
2. Hover over the edge of the "Web Frontend" rectangle — it highlights to show a connection point
3. Click to start the line, then hover over the "API Server" rectangle and click again
4. The line connects the two components

Repeat to create connections between all related components:

• Web Frontend → API Server
• API Server → Database
• API Server → Auth Service
• API Server → Cache
• API Server → Message Queue

Step 5: Add Direction Labels

Add text labels to your connector lines to indicate the nature of each connection:

• "REST API" on the Frontend → API line
• "SQL" on the API → Database line
• "OAuth" on the API → Auth line
• "Redis" on the API → Cache line

Step 6: Apply Constraints for Alignment

Use constraints to keep the diagram tidy:

1. Select the top edges of all boxes in the same tier, then apply a Horizontal constraint to align them
2. Apply Equal constraints to make all boxes the same width
3. Apply Vertical constraints to center-align stacked components

When you rearrange the diagram, constrained components stay aligned automatically.

Step 7: Style and Export

1. Adjust colors to visually distinguish tiers (e.g., blue for frontend, green for backend, orange for data stores)
2. Adjust stroke widths for emphasis
3. Export as PNG for presentations or SVG for documentation

Result

You've created a professional architecture diagram with aligned components, labeled connections, and constrained layout. Because of the constraints, you can rearrange components and the diagram adjusts cleanly.