
Show HN: Vexlio – Create precise, beautiful diagrams - ttd
https://vexlio.com/
======
didgeoridoo
"We, like many others, have developed “subscription fatigue” when it comes to
buying software. A single Vexlio license is available to purchase for a one-
time payment of $25.99 USD. No subscription and no recurring payments are
required."

I almost want to give you money just to encourage this kind of behavior.

~~~
felipellrocha
I could write a SaaS that manages your subscriptions for you for a small fee
of $5/mo! How about that?

~~~
ReverseCold
You joke, but that's not a bad idea for a product.

~~~
paulddraper
Resellers are pretty common in enterprise land. They'll manage all your
subscriptions and give you a consolidated bill each month.

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sratner
You may wish to sign your installer binary.

    
    
        Windows protected your PC
    
        Windows Defender SmartScreen prevented an unrecognized app
        from starting. Running this app might put your PC at risk.
    
        App: vexlio-setup-1.0.0.exe 
        Publisher: Unknown publisher 
    
        [ Don't run ]

------
ttd
Hey HN,

Creator here. I thought this would be of interest to the HN crowd for things
like the LaTeX equation integration and Lua live-edit mode. Happy to answer
any questions!

~~~
mipmap04
Love it so far. Is there a way to make HTTP requests in the Lua code (or a way
to add plugins)? I can think of a few applications where it would be nice to
generate some diagrams off web requests using Lua-cURL and a json parser.

~~~
samstave
Can you please give examples of the applications you're thinking of?

~~~
mipmap04
Mostly around data visualization for quarterly reports. Occasionally I make
infographics for stakeholders that involve some unusual data visualization /
presentation that is more artistic than the usual bars and lines. A tool like
this would allow me to build the template for my periodic infographics and
then I could enter the data on a website and have the infographic generate on
the fly. I've used d3.js for something very similar in the past, but I find
d3.js to be a bit complicated and this would be a lot easier to share with
less technical team members who I would like to eventually own the creation of
these reports.

------
lklklkj2342487
It's so refreshing to see something other than Electron-based garbage on HN.

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otikik
This is funnily aligned to my interests.

Some time ago I did a relatively popular
slideshow([https://www.slideshare.net/otikik/how-to-make-awesome-
diagra...](https://www.slideshare.net/otikik/how-to-make-awesome-diagrams-for-
your-slides)) about making diagrams. This software seems to enforce a lot of
the guidelines I proposed there out-of-the-box, which is nice.

I also happen to know some Lua. I delved a bit on sandboxing it. Maybe the
author'll find it useful:
[https://github.com/kikito/sandbox.lua](https://github.com/kikito/sandbox.lua)

~~~
ttd
The slideshow looks like a great reference, and I will absolutely be
revisiting your Lua sandboxing repo to learn more about your approach. Thanks!

------
sushisource
Wow, this looks great and the pricing is awesome. Any plans for a Linux
version?

~~~
dflock
I would buy a linux version of this.

~~~
dom0
Flagged as possible replacement for my Visio-in-a-VM workflow (I don't use
most of Visio's _vast_ feature set), since it can do that:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14555490](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14555490)

------
_pmf_
Very nice; love the pricing. Reminds me of an older editor I used
[http://ipe.otfried.org/](http://ipe.otfried.org/) that also allowed
programmatic interaction (yours being much more polished, of course).

------
bastijn
I installed this as I was curious. Both x64 and x86 downloaded fresh from the
website crashed on boot. Shame, I wanted to try and considered buying even.

Had UAC enabled but tried both normal and run as admin.

Does it contact a server on first try? I'm behind a (corporate) proxy. Noticed
your website does load but your user-guide does not behind my proxy. I
disabled the proxy but still the app crashes though.

\------------------ System Information \------------------

    
    
          Time of this report: 6/15/2017, 21:14:05
    
                 Machine name: doesntreallymatter
    
                   Machine Id: neither
    
             Operating System: Windows 10 Enterprise 64-bit 

(10.0, Build 14393) (14393.rs1_release_sec.170427-1353) Language: English
(Regional Setting: English) System Manufacturer: Hewlett-Packard

    
    
                 System Model: HP ZBook 15 G2
    
                         BIOS: Default System BIOS
    
                    Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4810MQ 

CPU @ 2.80GHz (8 CPUs), ~2.8GHz Memory: 16384MB RAM

    
    
          Available OS Memory: 16266MB RAM
    
                    Page File: 9946MB used, 8750MB available
    
                  Windows Dir: C:\windows
    
              DirectX Version: DirectX 12
    
          DX Setup Parameters: Not found
    
             User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
    
           System DPI Setting: 120 DPI (125 percent)
    
              DWM DPI Scaling: UnKnown
    
                     Miracast: Available, with HDCP
    

Microsoft Graphics Hybrid: Supported

    
    
               DxDiag Version: 10.00.14393.0000 64bit Unicode

~~~
ttd
I'm sorry it crashed on you! Does a "send crash report" dialog pop up when you
launch? If so, please either click the send button or copy/paste the crash
report in an email to me (tyler at vexlio dot com). If not, the crash is
happening before the crash report handler is configured, and it becomes a
little more tricky to debug.

I'd love if I could chat with you about this issue to see if I can get it
resolved quickly -- if you're ok with that, please send me an email.

I'm not sure why the user guide isn't loading for you. That page is entirely
static and only makes requests to the Vexlio web server to fetch the content.

~~~
bastijn
No. Only close or debug pops up.

------
tgb
This might be worth it for my thesis alone. BTW, your logo displays as a
pixelated image when viewed on my phone (looks like it's magnified a couple
times). Slightly ironic considering the product on offer! I think the problem
is the extra-wide gif demoing the "program mode."

~~~
ttd
Rats... do you know the resolution of your phone screen by chance? Good luck
with the thesis!

~~~
npalmer
I have a note 4 (2560x1440) and it has a slight blur for me too.

------
asp2insp
I love this idea. I can't try it out because I run OSX, but I've signed up for
your waitlist. Seems very competitively priced for something that looks like
it competes with some features of Microsoft Visio (which starts at $300) for
similar diagramming/snapping functionality.

~~~
ttd
I'm hopeful that the price does seem competitive, but not too low. I'd say the
Visio market is slightly different, although you're right there is probably
some overlap. Thanks for checking it out, and I hope to have a Mac version up
and running before too long!

------
vijucat
Very usable and intuitive, yet powerful. I love it and you have a happy, new
customer. Maybe it's my inexperience with advanced tools, but this is the
first time I could simply align the text inside a box horizontally and
vertically without having to count pixels manually. Lucidcharts, et al, are
great, too, but the monthly subscription fees is ridiculously high.

It might be hellish to implement, but it would be amazing if the Lua code and
the drawing were 100% duals, and one could switch between them at will. I bet
this is a common request on HN, but a dangerous one to try and satisfy, i.e.,
it would be difficult to implement, appreciated by only a niche customer, and
not worth the effort, so please feel free to ignore it. The tool is quite
awesome as it is.

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protomyth
Are Boolean operation on the shapes supported? What background options are
available? Looks nice. Will buy for Mac since OmniGraffle just isn't good
enough to replace Visio.

~~~
ttd
Yes, Boolean operations on shapes are supported. Select the shapes/paths, and
use the "Merge selected objects" operation in the Object menu. Currently
supported are union, difference, and intersection. The resulting object will
be a path.

Right now there is no way to change the default white background (exported as
transparent), but this would be an easy thing to add.

~~~
protomyth
Grids with units of measure would be a nice touch (also not exported), thanks
for the response.

------
theveloped
This is absolutely amazing! Just wish I had seen it a year ago or so. You have
no idea how many hours I've spent drawing in tikz while writing my thesis..
Best of luck!

------
vijucat
OP, it just occurred to me that the Lua live-edit mode should _ideally_ work
like Excel Record Macro, i.e., everything you do in the drawing editor is
actually generating code in the backend. Hope you find this a useful analogy.

------
Ginguin
Hopefully it's just me, but nothing outside of the main page is loading. I am
getting a "This site can't be reached" when attempting to see features, the
about page, pricing, the download, etc.

~~~
ttd
Hmm, I'm seeing some slightly slower-than-usual response times but it still
seems up to me. Hopefully the issue clears up for you.

------
turdnagel
Pardon me for being a pedant, but what is the meaning of the word "instantly"
in the headline? As in very easy to get started? I was sort of hoping Vexilo
had invented a brain-PC interface.

~~~
ttd
Instantly in this case means several things to me (person who wrote the copy).
1) Very quickly create precise diagrams, meaning diagrams where you know
things are perfectly snapped, aligned, etc. 2) Very quickly see the changes
you make to your diagram reflected in the drawing (i.e. you don't just see the
outline of geometry when moving an object, you see the entire object). 3) Very
quickly make your diagrams in code, if that's what you like to use, with the
live-edit program mode.

Other small things factor into this choice of words as well. For example,
native embedding of LaTeX equations can be a big timesaver for someone who
needs many of them. Or, using the "duplicate in grid" tool to quickly make
rows of boxes connected with arrows.

I hope it doesn't come across as misleading. I really do believe Vexlio can
allow you to create diagrams much more quickly than its competitors.

------
conmarap
It looks pretty, but how is it better than Google Drive's diagram app? I
couldn't exactly tell the difference by looking at the website, besides being
pretty.

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chrismealy
A lot of people don't know this, but before Steve Jobs's keynotes become
famous not every software application was described as "beautiful."

~~~
dmix
Not many applications were beautiful either.

~~~
wmeredith
Not many are to this day.

------
bryanrasmussen
I have a lot of diagrams in graphml, can I import?

~~~
ttd
At this time, there's no native import for GraphML, although this is something
I do want to support eventually, including other graph specification languages
like DOT. This is not implemented yet, however.

------
ShaneOG
Looks great. Signed up for the waitlist (macOS).

Do you plan to offer template support? I would love to use this to create
network diagrams.

~~~
ttd
On the roadmap is a "shape search" similar to what Visio has. Is that the sort
of templating you're thinking of?

------
dom0
PDF export: can it create automatically cropped PDFs, e.g. for inclusion as
bare figures in LaTeX?

Can it render PNGs at high qualities?

~~~
ttd
Yes, PDF (and PNG) export are automatically cropped by default. You can export
an arbitrary region of the drawing as well. You can also just export the
objects that are currently selected, which is convenient for doing repeated
exports of different pieces of your diagram.

The resolution of the output image in the case of PNG is something you can
specify, so you can make it as large as you want.

edit: "render" -> "export"

~~~
jostylr
Do you have any plans to export out a diagram as code, such as in GeoGebra's
export to PSTricks and Tikz?

Perhaps even better would be a set of instructions that could be piped into
some other program to transform into whatever it needs.

That is to say, if you could create a simple parseable format or use an
existing diagram lanuage, if one exists sufficiently compatible, then those
who want to convert it into PSTricks or SVG or whatever could then base their
conversion off your language. Both PNG and PDF don't seem amenable to such a
transformation.

One use for this could be using your program to create a basic figure template
for some math problem involving a diagram, one whose parameters might change
and thus some of the textual content changes without necessarily changing the
text. This could be a SVG on the web, for example.

It also would allow for a better integration with particular fonts, etc., in
embedding into another document, such as a LaTex document.

Perhaps, at a minimum, since you have a scripting language you use, you could
have a diagram to export it as a whole diagram as something in that language.
That might be a bit dangerous since ideally your exported language format
would not change much and I could see your underlying scripting language would
change. Also, ideally the export language should be rather explicit to make it
simpler to parse, e.g., a loop to draw concentric circles could just output
the concentric circles in the simpler language while the Lua script would
naturally be having the loop.

~~~
ttd
You can already export to SVG, which is a widely enough supported graphics
format that there are quite a few standalone tools to perform various
transformations on it. In fact, the .vex file format is a just very thin
wrapper around SVG content to store a bit of extra metadata (such as the LaTeX
for equation objects).

Perhaps I misunderstand your question though. Are you envisioning an export
format with more semantic information about the diagram, rather than just a
simple declarative description, as is present with SVG or Postscript?

~~~
jostylr
That's great to hear; SVG should be more than sufficient. I only have a Mac so
I can't play with the program itself. I was going off the visual of the export
of pdf/png.

I see now that it says SVG in the body text. I totally missed that the first
time. The heading of "export to pdf" along with the graphic that showed PDF
and PNG support in the drop down was what filtered into my head.

Now I just need to wait until it comes to the Mac. Looking forward to it.

------
polskibus
How does it compare to open source draw.io?

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angry_octet
Any chance you would have OmniGraffle interoperability? It's the killer app
that keeps me using OS X.

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ai_ia
I have looking for something like this. Thank you so much creators of Vexlio.

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GoToRO
One can draw 30 objects in Trial mode. Pretty nice. I might have it on my
computer for years and never have a use for it. But if I have it I might learn
it and find a use for it.

------
mmargerum
Will you be putting this on the mac store?

~~~
ttd
I am not sure on this yet, but this will be decided before the Mac version is
released.

------
payneio
Linux plz

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rcdwealth
That is proprietary software. I am now touching it.

