Shapes will not stay put

I am new to Omnigraffle and unusually frustrated with what I perceive to be an entirely counter-intuitive UX. if it doesn’t start acting more like Visio the mac goes back to Apple and I go back to Windows. I have until January to love this very expensive box and this app is the key. Two major beef’s with this app for now:

Why in the name of all thats holy would a shape that I place in a spot then spontaneously move on its own?

And how do I find a palette of shapes related to network diagrams in US or metric?

I have a similar issue. My problems is that any group of diagram wouldn’t want to be in the space where I want it. I’d like to keep the diagram within the 2 pages in my layout. In other words, I’d like to be able to freely arrange my diagrams but it just has a mind of its own, wanting to keep building itself horizonally… PLEASE HELP!!

I hope you have better luck than I. I have had no responses to this thread, clearly the Omni group doesn’t give a hoot. I have no idea how they shill this garbage. I have to admit, you’re further along than I am. When I couldn’t get anything to stay put I went back to Windows and Visio. The $3k mac that I got to replace my Windows desktop goes back to Apple the first week of January (two month try and buy) and they can make it work or refund the money. Its a cool box but for that kind of scratch it AND the apps have to be flawless. I can get annoyed for $300.00 at Tiger Direct.

I just figured it out –

You’d have to choose another template that is not one of “Automatic Layout” templates, which restricts your drawings into a certain format. I chose another template from “Imperial Units” because of my final
printed paper size, and it worked. I can freely position my diagram wherever I want in the layout. And when I used an Imperial Units template, I noticed in the Canvas panel that said Automatic Layout being “off”.

Apple and Omni owe you about $350.00. 10% of the total sale. Because if thats the issue, and I can now make network diagrams without everything snapping to wherever Voldemort wants them to be, then I might actually keep the computer and software.

Did you look on Stenciltown for the network shapes? This category might be what you’re looking for: https://stenciltown.omnigroup.com/#category=sysadmin

The “feature” that is bothering you is “Automatic Layout”, if you haven’t already found that. I actually like it while I am starting out, particularly in combination with the outline mode for fleshing out some concepts. But you can turn it off, of course. Then everything stays exactly where you left it.

I’ve discovered that one can “Lock” a shape or group of shapes. And then those shapes will not move for any reason - can’t even drag them around - without first unlocking them. (But beware if Auto layout is on - they might move when you unlock them.)

What I’d like is for the “auto layout” to work mostly, but if I move things around for it to respect that as well.