Understanding Auto-layout and Manual-layout
The button at the top of an ownership diagram's toolbar — reading Auto-layout, Manual-layout, Auto-layout blocked, or Flex-layout — tells you whether anything on the diagram has been changed by hand, and opens the panel where you change layout settings and refresh the diagram.
It's a Status, Not a Switch
This button isn't something you toggle. It reports whether the diagram still matches what StructureGram's layout engine would produce on its own.
- Auto-layout (green) — nothing has been changed by hand. The diagram is exactly as generated.
- Manual-layout (amber) — something has been changed by hand: an entity moved, a relationship line edited, a label repositioned, or an entity resized. Any one of those is enough.
- Auto-layout blocked (amber) — nothing has been changed by hand, but the diagram has annotations on it (shapes, text, arrows) that would end up misaligned if the layout engine ran again, so automatic re-layout is paused as a precaution. See Diagram Annotations.
- Flex-layout (purple) — the diagram uses the legacy Flex link routing option. Flex is legacy and won't show for most users — see Legacy Diagram Layout and Routing Options.
The status button and the three Refresh buttons below always agree: the button reads Manual-layout exactly when at least one Refresh has something to discard.
The Three Refreshes
Open the status button and you'll see a Refresh row with three buttons. Each rebuilds a different part of the diagram:
| Button | Rebuilds | Keeps |
|---|---|---|
| Layout | Entity positions and all relationship lines | Labels and entity sizes |
| Links | Relationship lines only | Entity positions, labels, sizes |
| Labels & sizes | Relationship labels and entity sizes | Entity positions, and any line you have shaped by hand |
Green Means Nothing to Lose
The colour tells you what a click will cost:
- Green — that part of the diagram has nothing changed by hand, so clicking rebuilds it to exactly what's already on screen. Nothing is lost.
- Amber — clicking will discard hand-made changes to that part of the diagram.
Because the colour says this up front, the Refresh buttons act immediately rather than asking you to confirm. Check the colour before you click — and note that there is no Undo. See Understanding Why There Is No Undo Button.
Layout Also Rebuilds Relationship Lines
Layout rebuilds entity positions and every relationship line, because once entities move, the old lines no longer connect them sensibly. That means Layout turns amber when you've edited a relationship line, even if you haven't moved a single entity — clicking it really would discard that edit.
So editing one relationship line lights up both Links and Layout. That's not a mistake: Links rebuilds just that line, Layout rebuilds everything including it. Use Links when your entity positions are good.
Resizing an Entity Redraws Its Lines
An entity's relationship lines meet it at its edge, so changing its size changes where they have to connect. StructureGram redraws them for you:
- Lines you have not shaped by hand are redrawn around the entity's new size.
- Lines you have shaped by hand keep the shape you gave them, and only their ends move to meet the new edge.
The same applies when Labels & sizes returns entities to their default size — that moves what the lines attach to, so the lines follow. This is why Labels & sizes keeps hand-shaped lines but may still redraw others.
When Links Is Unavailable
Links is greyed out on diagrams using one of the legacy routing options, which can't rebuild relationship lines on their own. On those diagrams, Layout is the way to rebuild lines — and it will be amber if you have line edits to discard. See Legacy Diagram Layout and Routing Options.
Your Changes Are Remembered
There's no save step — every change autosaves as you make it, and the status is remembered between sessions. Reopen a diagram you rearranged last week and it still reads Manual-layout, with the same buttons amber, because those changes are still there to lose. See Ownership Diagram Auto-Save.
How to Refresh Part of a Diagram
- Open an ownership diagram.
- Click the status button at the top of the toolbar.
- Look at the Refresh row and pick the button covering what you want rebuilt.
- Check its colour — amber means you'll lose hand-made changes to that part.
- Click it. The change applies straight away.
Tips
- Reach for the narrowest refresh. If only the lines look wrong, use Links — it leaves your entity positions alone. Layout is the biggest hammer.
- Green buttons are safe to click. If you're unsure whether you changed something, the colour already answers it.
- All three green means the diagram is purely generated. The status button will read Auto-layout.