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Creating views & sharing

A view is a curated diagram — a subset of entities and relationships on a canvas, typically one per domain, system, or initiative. Views live under Add & Connect → Views (/views).

Creating a view

  1. Go to Views and create a new view, choosing a viewpoint template (this scopes which entity/relationship types are relevant and names the audience).
  2. Add entities to the canvas and the relevant relationships appear between them.
  3. Arrange the diagram:
  4. Use auto-layout to arrange nodes automatically.
  5. Drag nodes to reposition; positions are saved with the view.
  6. Use Shift+click or box-select for multi-select.

Reading the diagram

Nodes are typed visually: colour = layer (business / application / technology / data / governance) and shape = type (a database is a cylinder, a technology a server, a data pipeline a chevron, and so on), with the entity-type icon shown on each node. Cloud-hosted applications and technologies also carry a small provider-tinted cloud badge in the corner. The same vocabulary is used on shared and embedded views.

The review workflow

Views have a governance status: Draft → Review → Approved → Archived. Move a view through these states as it matures, so consumers know whether a diagram is authoritative or a work in progress.

Sharing a view

  • Export to PNG — the toolbar's export captures the full graph at high resolution for slides and documents.
  • Public share link — generate a tokenised, revocable link (/share/:token) so people without an account can see the view. Add ?embed=true for a chrome-free version suitable for embedding in an iframe.
  • Confluence — ArcaMira ships a Confluence Connect app; a macro renders a shared view inside a Confluence page.

Sharing publishes content. A share link is viewable by anyone who has it until you revoke it. Only share views you're comfortable being seen outside the tool.

Tip: stakeholder summaries vs views

If you just want a non-technical person to understand one entity, you often don't need a diagram — point them at the entity's stakeholder summary page instead (see For business stakeholders). Use views when the relationships are the point.