EdrawMax 16.0.0

EdrawMax is a general-purpose diagramming application from Wondershare (Edraw). You can use it to draw flowcharts, organizational charts, floor plans, network and electrical diagrams, UML and ER models, Gantt charts, mind maps, infographics and more than two hundred other diagram types. It runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, as EdrawMax Online in a web browser, and as a mobile app for iOS and Android. You can use a free version without a time limit, but it restricts pages, shapes and output quality. Paid subscriptions and a perpetual licence remove those limits.

Templates, symbols and the drawing canvas

A new EdrawMax document usually starts from the template gallery or from a blank canvas for a chosen diagram type. Choosing a type also loads its symbol libraries into the left-hand panel. Examples include walls, doors and furniture for a floor plan, or logic gates and switches for an electrical diagram. You drag shapes from the panel onto the page.

The editor uses a ribbon layout, and a community gallery adds user-published diagrams that can be opened and adapted.

Connectors and connection points

Diagrams such as flowcharts depend on lines that stay attached when shapes move. EdrawMax has four connector types: right-angle, curved, straight and freeform. When you drag a glued shape, the connector re-routes and keeps both ends attached.

Custom symbols and libraries

When the supplied shapes are not enough, the Pencil and Pen tools draw new outlines, and Boolean operations combine or subtract shapes. You drag finished symbols into My Library for reuse.

Diagrams built from data

You can generate several diagram types in EdrawMax from a spreadsheet instead of drawing them by hand. An automated org chart reads an employee file through Data > Import and builds the hierarchy on the canvas. You can create a Gantt chart from Excel, CSV or TXT data.

The Insert tab offers common chart types. You can type values into a built-in worksheet or import them from XLSX or CSV. Shape Data attaches custom properties to any shape for use in reports and charts.

Quotation tool for project drawings

The EdrawMax Quotation Tool turns a drawing into a bill of materials. You import custom symbols with prices from an Excel sheet and draw the diagram with them. An export then produces a quotation with price and count columns.

Styling with themes

Themes in EdrawMax change fonts, colours and connector styles across every shape on a page at once, or on a single selected shape. One Click Beautify adjusts colours, line widths and fills automatically. Batch Replace Color swaps a set of colours for another. Quick Edit unifies fonts, colours and paragraph formatting across a page.

AI generation and recognition

The AI tab in EdrawMax generates diagrams from a written prompt or from an uploaded file. The AI flowchart tool, for instance, takes a description in a side panel and draws the chart. You can regenerate the result or refine it through a continued conversation with follow-up instructions. The same approach produces mind maps, timelines, tables, lists, SWOT and PEST analyses, Lean Canvas boards, user profiles and user stories.

Image text extraction (OCR) reads text from a picture and inserts it into the drawing; accuracy depends on how legible the image is. AI drawing, AI stickers and AI symbols generate graphics for the canvas. AI use draws on tokens, which are limited in the free plan.

Presentations from diagrams

EdrawMax can present a diagram without moving it into separate slide software. In the View tab, the presentation panel creates slides either by marking areas of a page or automatically, one slide per page. A separate PowerPoint add-in creates diagrams from text inside PowerPoint.

File formats and sharing

The native EdrawMax format is EDDX. You can import Visio, CAD and SVG files to open and edit existing drawings in EdrawMax. Export covers PDF and common image formats, plus Word, Excel, PowerPoint, HTML, SVG, Visio and PS/EPS.

You can store files locally or in Edraw’s cloud. Cloud documents keep a version history from which you can restore earlier states. Sharing sends an email invitation or a link with view or edit permission, and an embed code places a diagram on a web page.

Free version and paid plans

The main differences between the free version of EdrawMax and paid licences are in volume and output quality:

Paid EdrawMax licences come as semi-annual or annual subscriptions covering desktop, mobile and online use. A perpetual desktop licence includes a period of mobile and online access. Business and education plans are sold separately.