PlantUML Q&A - Recent activity in Wanted features

Edited: How to pass raw latex code to the Tikz/LaTeX export

Tue, 09 Jun 2026 13:11:52 +0000

I really like the latex:nopreamble export feature, but to fully integrate it with my documents I would like to pass raw latex code to the exported file, i.e.

@startuml
A -> B: <raw> something \gls{glossary-entry} \autocite{cool-source} </raw>
@enduml

IDEF0 support

Wed, 27 May 2026 09:18:25 +0000

It would be great if PlantUML supported IDEF0 diagrams (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IDEF0).

Commented: Plans for BPMN support

Thu, 21 May 2026 08:32:55 +0000

That's a real shame this feature is frozen. I have been trying some of the alternatives out there and they aren't very good.

Commented: Other time scales for Gantt Diagram (Ex : Hours)

Mon, 18 May 2026 20:45:29 +0000

The use case of a generic timeline in the course of Hours/Minutes/Seconds would extend to a chain of events, or show a breakdown of tasks performed within a day (as often workers do).

It does not necessarily need to be for labor hours, just a more generic dependency graph. And more generic scale.

For instance, applying a series of logged events with their own slow-running processes could show a failure mode within a day. I understand a Gantt chart is intended to "plan" for events on project-manager timescales, but I find a HH:MM:SS (or millis() timestamped) format could be very useful as well.

Answered: Programming PlantUML in Rust

Sun, 26 Apr 2026 07:58:17 +0000

To the best of my knowledge there some (ongoing) work on native executables, see also:

Commented: Wrapping for arrow text

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 10:22:00 +0000

FYI, here are some discussions on this topic and new enhancement here:

Regards,
Th.

Commented: Adding a note to start and end state

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 16:36:13 +0000

It worked!

Thanks very much!

Answered: Gantt: Allow multilines footer

Fri, 20 Mar 2026 12:44:45 +0000

Hi,

That is now fixed (observed on v1.2026.3+)

Regards,
Th.

Cross functional process flow diagram

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 14:17:12 +0000

Using corporate IT we can create cross functional process flows with the Excel standard cross functional process flow template which uses a visio addin to visualise the diagram from a simple spreadsheet list. However the diagram is plain and not very easy to read or use.

Plantuml currently allows the creation of simple process flows but not true cross functional process flows (twin axis) like in excel and visio and BPMN2.0. I believe that creating this capability will grow plantumls audience to cover business analysts alongside architects like myself and will be of greatest value to businesses.

If you choose to act upon this I would be most willing to support in anyway I could

Answered: How to change printscale quarterly so Q1 starts on a February rather than January ?

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 11:58:38 +0000

At this time, **printscale** does not have a secret syntax for that. Since the gregorian calendar is hardwired to quarters, Q1 equals January–March, end of story. Fiscal calendars beginning in February are not supported natively.

As you said, offsetting dates or replacing your tasks with explicit start/end dates in place of quarter tokens are the only workarounds that I've encountered. However, it disrupts the "real" date alignment and quickly causes chaos on the Gantt chart.

The clear answer would be to attach "starts at 2026Q2" to a bespoke fiscal start, but that isn't done. Consequently, this is definitely a feature request.

You're not alone if your organization operates on a fiscal year that extends from February to January. Configurable quarter anchors in printscale are something I would advocate for since they make much more sense than putting everything via Gregorian logic.

Answered: Combined Control and Data(Object) flow in Activity Diagram

Wed, 28 Jan 2026 04:53:19 +0000

you can mix control flow and object flow in an activity diagram, but you don’t do it with dashed arrows. uml expects explicit object nodes and object flows, which can fan out to multiple actions without forks.

plantuml is the blocker here. its activity diagram support is control-flow first, and object flow is very limited. you can model action → object → action, but not a clean parallel data flow running alongside the control flow like the spec shows.

bottom line: uml supports combined control and data flow, plantuml mostly doesn’t. if you need proper object flow semantics in an activity diagram, you’ll hit a wall with plantuml.

Is there an Open Feature / Issue to improve SVG Sprite handling - I've got an experiment would like to propose as a PR

Wed, 28 Jan 2026 01:04:25 +0000

I've had some time to work on another implementation of Sprite SVG Parsing.

I am wondering if there is an open feature / features on this already or if I should create one?

Have gone down the path of:
- Adding Batik library to parse SVG Sprite elements
- A new Interface ISvgParser extends Sprite
-- has method void drawU(UGraphic ug, double scale, HColor fontColor, HColor forcedColor)
- 2 SVG Sprite parsing implementations that implement the ISvgParser, SvgNanoParser (existing) and SvgDomParser (New)
- SvgDomParser uses Dom logic on SVGs vs. Text/Regex and have been able to add more SVG handling features (most common but not everything)

This discussion has some enhancments, if there is no specific Feature request yet I'll create a new one.
https://github.com/plantuml/plantuml/discussions/1066

Answered: Add task start date and finish date to GANTT label

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 18:34:03 +0000

Thank you for the detailed suggestion, this is a very good idea.

We are currently actively working on the Gantt engine, in particular on extending it to handle finer time precision (hours, minutes, seconds). Your proposal fits very well within this ongoing effort.

We will add this idea to our backlog and consider it as part of the current Gantt refactoring work.

Thank you for taking the time to share this, and thank you for your patience.

Answered: Allow empty branch in mindmap

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 19:26:17 +0000

Hello J.,

Thank for the report.

FYI that is now fixed from V1.2026.0.

Even:

@startmindmap
*
**
**
***
@endmindmap

Enjoy,
Regards,
Th.

Commented: AUTOSAR type of ports in the components diagram

Sat, 17 Jan 2026 06:05:15 +0000

Maybe you want tos use colors or skinparam (or styles could work too, but i didn't test it) as workaround https://forum.plantuml.net/16306/coloring-single-ports?show=16306#q16306

Answered: Timing diagram constraints overlapping

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 11:33:38 +0000

Hello A.,

Yes there is an Issue.

See similar request here:

https://forum.plantuml.net/18013/clarifying-display-overlapping-constraints-highlighted

Then here is a workaround adding a Binary line for the Constraints comment as:

binary "Constraint" as C <<transparent>>

@C
@2 <-> @65 : {T_trig_base_to_all_res_recv}

Enjoy,
Regards,
Th.

architectural and Detailed Design as per the requirements . Include any design constraints

Wed, 14 Jan 2026 07:03:07 +0000

Answered: Gantt: start dates as weeks?

Thu, 08 Jan 2026 08:09:33 +0000

Hi,

Would be a great feature for all the planners in the Nordic countries

Commented: Connect two arbitrary nodes in New Activity Diagram Syntax

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 19:04:05 +0000

7 years after and no implementation for such basic feature?

How would this be done now?

I need to illustrate calls from different points of an activity diagram. How would duplication be avoided?

Answered: Make group take all horizontal space?

Tue, 09 Dec 2025 12:22:33 +0000

Hello C.,

For that, starting with the next version (1.2025.11), you will be able to use `partition`, as:

@startuml
!pragma teoz
partition 1
Bob -> Alice : hello
end
partition 2
Carl -> Alice: Hi
end
@enduml

Enjoy,
Regards,
Th.

Commented: Partition through different Swimlane

Wed, 26 Nov 2025 13:31:10 +0000

Hello everyone

I also vouch for this feature!

Commented: Include date in the milestone label

Mon, 03 Nov 2025 23:52:04 +0000

This is a very useful idea.

Especially for milestones, it is a very common usecase in project planning tools such as MS Project, to have (tasks also, but very common for) milestones display the date when they happen.

This way, the timeline and important dates become easy to follow, after things change.

So, if nothing else, a way to add the calculated start or end date to a label, is very useful.

Commented: Is it possible to define the name and an alias for a swimlane in one place and use the alias everywhere else?

Thu, 30 Oct 2025 14:51:00 +0000

Hello T.,

For that you can use unicode, like:

|a|A
|b|name with a pipe "<U+007C>": "a<U+007C>b"

|a|
:action 1;
|b|
:action 2;

See doc. here:

https://plantuml.com/creole

Enjoy,
Regards,
Th.

Answered: RSS for the top releases

Fri, 24 Oct 2025 14:44:46 +0000

Hello D.,

For that you can use the RSS from GitHub Plantuml Release here:

github.com/plantuml/plantuml/releases.atom

Enjoy,
Regards,
Th.

Commented: Generate GIT graph

Fri, 17 Oct 2025 08:25:31 +0000

The EBNF looks like the better way of achieving git branching visualization: https://plantuml.com/ebnf

Commented: Delete tasks on Gantt

Thu, 16 Oct 2025 14:48:42 +0000

if the task is delete , the related resource should be removed also. but now seems only change the render style.

Commented: Improvement suggestions for layout of state diagrams, especially large ones

Mon, 06 Oct 2025 11:48:13 +0000

I have made some further improvements definitely worth updating: https://github.com/plantuml/plantuml/pull/2369. No change to the PlantUML code required, just significantly improved layout.

Answered: WBS link to/from multiline elements

Wed, 24 Sep 2025 17:31:49 +0000

Hello D.,

Thank for the report.

With next release (v1.2025.8), it will be now fixed:

@startwbs
* r
**(TLA):Teamlead
Team A;
**(TLB): Teamlead
Team B;

TLB -> TLA
@endwbs

Enjoy,
Regards,
Th.

Answer selected: How about add a vertical line to indicate current date of Gantt

Mon, 22 Sep 2025 08:58:14 +0000

@startgantt
Project starts 2025-09-15
today is colored in Blue
[Prototype design] requires 15 days
[Test prototype] requires 10 days
@endgantt

Commented: Non hierarchical cross-links in Mind Maps

Mon, 15 Sep 2025 03:29:02 +0000

For me, this is the biggest missing piece for visualizing mindmaps using PlantUML. Or maybe we can add `left to right direction` to WBS to achieve the same?

Commented: Specify output filename on command line

Thu, 28 Aug 2025 09:10:48 +0000

How can I process multiple puml files and still specify output filename.

I would need to run planuml in parallel currently with the pipe approach which is not very good in performance.

It would be great to have a option like --keep-filename which does not change the filename of the file to the plantuml title and put it in the same filepath (just with different file-ending). In case there are multiple diagrams in one puml it should fail with this parameter. Eg.:
java -jar plantuml.jar file1 file2 file3 --keep-filename

An alternative would be to specify an output filename for each file. Eg.:
java -jar plantuml.jar file1input.puml file1output.png file2input.puml file2output.png --specify-output-filename

Commented: Text alignment in Activity Diagram

Tue, 26 Aug 2025 07:16:10 +0000

Or by style (because skinparam will be deprecated)

@startuml
<style>
element {HorizontalAlignment center}
</style>

:Hello world;
:This is defined on
several **lines**;
@enduml

Regards,
Th.

Commented: Venn diagrams

Thu, 14 Aug 2025 11:17:08 +0000

Here's a corrected diagram .

With all due respect, this is terrible (Venn made of rectangles?!?!).

More importantly; I want to give numbers, and for PlantUML to position and draw the sets for me.

wireshark's pcap to planuml visualizer (pcap2uml)

Sat, 12 Jul 2025 10:44:31 +0000

Hi!

I have create tool to visualise protocols conversations like SIP, Diameter, GTP, CAMEL, etc. in pcap using PlantUML sequence diagrams. And optionally integration with Wireshark. Tool can be found in GitHub: https://github.com/dgudtsov/pcap2uml

May I ask to include link to this tool into running page? - https://plantuml.com/en/running

Found some Unix installation scripts

Tue, 01 Jul 2025 16:12:09 +0000

related to How to install new version on Unix, #398 · plantuml-stdlib/C4-PlantUML

SomeFrenchGuy found simple unix installation scripts. Maybe you want to update your current description with the link to metanorma/plantuml-install: Installation script for PlantUML

BR Helmut

Commented: Is something planed that chinese text supports word wraps too?

Fri, 27 Jun 2025 16:55:03 +0000

Hi,

See recent news on this subject (from 1.2025.3b3) here:

wrapWidth only wrap sentences at punctuations for Chinese #2254 (comment)

@startuml
skinparam wrapWidth 200

["this is a component, and it will wrap this descripttion"] as a

["这也是一个组件，但是这段文件不会自动换行下去，这是为什么呢。"] as b
@enduml

Regards,
Th.

Does PlantUML support UML Diagram Interchange specification?

Thu, 26 Jun 2025 20:15:20 +0000

The goal of this specification is to enable a smooth and seamless exchange of documents compliant to the UML standard (in the following referred to as UML models) between different software tools. About the UML Diagram Interchange Specification Version 1.0

Commented: ELK layout engine: can svg support the same containers approach as for the default engine?

Tue, 24 Jun 2025 14:03:41 +0000

Hi The-Lu,

may be you have an idea on this one?

Thank you!

Answered: How can one create a package private class in a package?

Sun, 22 Jun 2025 16:44:10 +0000

Hello A.,

See some answer's element here:

https://forum.plantuml.net/4755/provide-display-visibility-attributes-private-protected?show=4766#a4766

And:

@startuml
package P {
-class "private Class" {
}

#class "protected Class" {
}

~class "package private Class" {
}

+class "public Class" {
}
}
@enduml

Enjoy,
Regards,
Th.

Edited: Dedicated Description Block for PlantUML Diagrams

Tue, 17 Jun 2025 16:29:57 +0000

Dear PlantUML Team,

I would like to request a new feature that allows users to add a dedicated diagram description block at the top of a diagram, aligned to the left, without a border. This would serve as a clean, unobtrusive summary, improving readability and enhancing diagram documentation.

Why is this needed?

Currently, existing elements do not fully address this requirement:

Headers are unsuitable when the title is displayed below, causing layout inconsistencies.
Legends can be placed below the title, but they do not support multiple legends, making structured annotations challenging.
Adding a new dedicated description block would provide a clear, well-positioned summary below the title while maintaining proper alignment and readability.

Suggested Implementation:

The description block should be positioned below the title.
It should align left, providing a structured introductory section.
No visible border, ensuring it blends naturally with the diagram.
Should not interfere with other diagram elements, maintaining logical spacing and order.

Previous Attempts to Solve the Issue:

I have already explored possible solutions and shared suggestions in the following discussions:
https://forum.plantuml.net/20086/add-a-borderless-text-box-for-diagram-description
https://forum.plantuml.net/20085/how-to-add-a-diagram-description-at-the-top-without-a-border

However, these approaches do not fully satisfy the desired layout, as they either impact placement or introduce unwanted formatting constraints.

Conclusion:

Adding a dedicated description block would significantly improve diagram documentation by providing a structured, non-intrusive way to convey important context. This enhancement would be highly beneficial for users who require clear explanations without affecting existing diagram elements.

I appreciate your time and consideration, and I hope this feature can be incorporated into a future update. Looking forward to your thoughts on this!

Best regards,
Omar

Example applying suggested approach, which is not suitable:

@startuml
skinparam maxMessageSize 40

title
<font color=red>Notebook Selection using wxQueueEvent</font>
<font color=red>AddNoteBook_OnClickTreControl_Event</font>
end title

left header
This diagram illustrates the use of wxQueueEvent for creating a new notebook when the user double-clicks an item in the tree control.
It emphasizes asynchronous communication between the Tree Control and Notebook using event handling mechanisms.
endheader

actor Actor
participant wxApp
participant mTreeCtrlPtr as TreeCtrl_ElmFiles
participant mNotebookPtr as AuiNotebook

Actor -> wxApp : Tab Click/Selection
wxApp -> AuiNotebook : EVT_AUINOTEBOOK_PAGE_CHANGED
AuiNotebook -> AuiNotebook: OnPageChanged(event)
activate AuiNotebook
AuiNotebook -> AuiNotebook: selectedIndex = event->GetSelection()

opt selectedIndex != -1
AuiNotebook -> AuiNotebook: selectedPage = GetPage(selectedIndex)
opt selectedPage != nullptr
AuiNotebook -> AuiNotebook: customEventPtr = new EvNotebook2TreeControl(EVT_CUSTOM_NOTEBOOK_CHANGED, GetId())
opt customEventPtr != nullptr
AuiNotebook -> AuiNotebook: customEventPtr.SetTreeItemId(selectedPage.GetTreeItemId())
AuiNotebook -[#blue]> TreeCtrl_ElmFiles: <font color=blue> wxQueueEvent(mTreeCtrlPtr, customEventPtr)
deactivate AuiNotebook
activate TreeCtrl_ElmFiles
note over AuiNotebook, TreeCtrl_ElmFiles: QueueEvent posts the event\nasynchronously to the tree control
TreeCtrl_ElmFiles -> TreeCtrl_ElmFiles: OnCustomEvent_NotebookChanged(event)
note right of TreeCtrl_ElmFiles: Retrieve tree item ID from the event
TreeCtrl_ElmFiles -> TreeCtrl_ElmFiles: itemId = event->GetTreeItemId()
opt itemId.IsOk() == true
TreeCtrl_ElmFiles -> TreeCtrl_ElmFiles: SelectItem(itemId, true)
end
deactivate TreeCtrl_ElmFiles
end
end
end
@enduml

http://www.plantuml.com/plantuml/png/bLHHRzis47xdhxXXBpOGErqtx268ZRgkcnf3ucnnzx8D0YsT9S8KAP0d9-cm_xwZQBLIPHJDWmr9_Exxlljuv1jFqb5TQk4FobJIoH9A-NIBtiiS7zGdX5zU2K6AD8hhlJK4gTNMpHncypjBkBFs00-eCILb3THUcHmUdtwliSRL4GrTNuQg-Q1uaMMX_YtN9nkpr2ezR1qk6UIiJdgbQ3A83eIuzlIiSIuAb1aw-5Tyi4vzOfZK2wroKt8TQDoJUCyVcmPU_zeyBuCqxBHC3-9MkbmP-FcL-4zSNvueHIY3I2osXVAGAPc7H9JMjISd2JrGWTmbWjttseGzawSE9OK091Xy1DFcyrYWQGiTPBRUQPoaeMKFqe0YP8s888S8QKnX2c9DW6LLIC-DCDO_cxHmrjZQCwWiQwDIsGI_Gth4ayesS9oIPFuCseqwRGysXWjUqU6rn9IVbI_zD4Hz2a08cHBtj0Z_WYU3LAegQOZRNbHLxqiP59Vaz3qvDWdjQxBIvNkbqVVHhPqJUb6hzeiGZHnCvb45hc0hTz1Cn-NdAHDnZK6TKeQk_jmcYu_hkyrszNQp-IsvNzoiakM7nTtDwfteGlkLLx0nzpB79QUGOpPguXc7zjLH4lP4ladZ6uEOhKs6Jp2BEK_cDqYVhO_6GjYAleB-C8F9JmBWUyY3K-Pcql0qwX6DcOFP-rWcDxNM5JbU_RP6MdkoPJFFOMzcpHIlZYtWTRElSQv68UpbnuVjvZPf0s-plWZkrjbe7Fn4HttclgUNkPe-80KVQyAIDRgjJczwIq5-IFxNZpjTup_puP1UGVUE2gXvxuYFkcD-yPMjLYl3ytCJLzkreVW9OBW0x15Tj_hYdDVErLDPJ_5Yml3-j-dU4_ePo0wkbYWtv8N9sM3uWlxIRTBwwX-ORWTEvGM1tP_Z-WF9AJn6F_7kMx-3lRFbbnPUQ4yr6zuvSVqvOBPs3YDoklQRmsWCincRg97NNwONZtEW7qN2YuQd5KAJ3QTXkECjDFw7tnl-gqlzFm00

Commented: Add a Borderless Text Box for Diagram Description

Mon, 16 Jun 2025 10:25:13 +0000

Hello everyone,
The example above demonstrates a simple way to add a diagram description consisting of multiple lines, aligned to the left.
In comparison, the example in the PlantUML documentation appears right-aligned, which doesn’t render well—particularly when the description includes a list or structured content.

Best regards,
Omar

Commented: Feature to add sub-scale to gantt

Thu, 05 Jun 2025 15:06:50 +0000

I would also like to see this option!

Best csase I can have the daily that displays the date and weekday initial
and under that the weekly that displays the week number.

Or even better, the other way around:
Month - Year
Week number (week grid)
Daily (date + initial of day, daily grid)

Answer selected: Adding a Note below a milestone in Gantt

Tue, 03 Jun 2025 19:38:25 +0000

Hello O., and M.,

This is now implemented (since 1.2025.3beta).

@startgantt
project starts 2020/02/01
[Milestone] happens 2020/02/05
note bottom
    This is a description of "Milestone"
end note
@endgantt

Enjoy,
Regards,
Th.

Answered: Enhance the drawing of complex json objects

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 18:33:23 +0000

This I know, but it's not the same.
I like the more compact view and would love to see this a little bit improved.

Regards

Jens

Commented: Declare Participants similar to Components

Mon, 19 May 2025 14:08:21 +0000

Hello D.,

For that you can use new style declaration, like:

@startuml
<style>
.mycolor {
  Backgroundcolor #palegreen
}
</style>
hide stereotype

participant MyParticipant <<mycolor>> order 20 [
    =MyTitle
    ----
    ""MySubTitle""
] 

participant Bob order 10 

@enduml

Enjoy,
Regards,
Th.

Commented: Support interrupt region and action type (especially accept time event action)

Wed, 30 Apr 2025 13:59:03 +0000

The action type is already described in another question here:

https://forum.plantuml.net/16558/draw-send-signal-action-accept-event-action-activity-diagram, so maybe it would be interesting to keep the action type discussion in a single question (sorry for the use of bold, it's because it will help further readers).

This is the only question request for interrupt region, so I hope all the related progress is discussed here.

Please don't take it as offensive. It's definitely not the purpose.

Answered: Provide a way to put page number in header/footer, when used in conjuction with nextpage

Sun, 27 Apr 2025 20:09:25 +0000

See some answers here:

https://forum.plantuml.net/6699/please-provide-macros-insert-current-number-total-number-pages?show=6709#a6709

Commented: Could other diagram types, like component, state, etc. support dynamic color notation?

Thu, 24 Apr 2025 18:48:10 +0000

Hi The-Lu!

thank you! I meant a bit another case (which actually brakes):

@startuml

component n #?black:white{

}

@enduml

Please have a look:
https://www.plantuml.com/plantuml/uml/SoWkIImgAStDuU9ApiyjoCzBpIjHo5DGja_AIKpEjYhFo2n9hUPIKE2gvU9oICrB0Qe40000

Answered: Update Material UI icons in standard libarary

Tue, 22 Apr 2025 13:14:08 +0000

Please, update these icons as it is very time-consuming to run into an icon you have chosen from the icons set but is not yet supported in PlantUML.

Commented: Please provide a way to change background and border color of connectors in activity diagrams

Thu, 17 Apr 2025 08:03:28 +0000

An example (I appreciate feedback if something is/seems/is wrong):

@startuml
' Activity diagram definitions BEGIN

skinparam style strictuml
skinparam nodesep 800 'pixels

skinparam arrow {
Thickness 1.2
Color #000000
}

skinparam conditionStyle diamond

skinparam activity {
BackgroundColor #FFFFFF
BorderColor #000000
BorderThickness 1.2
}

skinparam activityDiamond {
BackgroundColor #FFFFFF
BorderColor #000000
BorderThickness 1.2
}

skinparam rectangle {
BackgroundColor #FFFFFF
BorderColor #000000
BorderThickness 1.2
}

' To change connector background color, I had to use:
'#white:(A)
' But I couldn't change the line color inline.

' I could style the circle...
<style>
activityDiagram {
circle {
Backgroundcolor lightblue /' ...but it also changes the background of start and stop of activities. '/
LineColor red
LineThickness 2
}
}
</style>

start
:Check request;
if () then ([unfeasible]\n)
#white:(A) /' Inline color works. '/
else (\n[feasible])
' Continue
endif
:Analyze impact;
:Impact analysis\n report;<<task>> /' An object, actually. '/
if () then ([prohibitive]\n)
(A)
else (\n[non-prohibitive])
' Continue
endif
repeat
:Implement modification;
:Test modification;
repeatwhile ([failed]\n)
->[approved];
stop

(A)
:Reject request;
stop
@enduml