I’ve recently started using Lucidchart to map out a large cross-team workflow, and the diagram is getting bigger than expected. I’m trying to keep everything readable, but once multiple layers and decision paths are added, it starts feeling cluttered.
For those experienced with large diagrams:
Do you prefer containers or nested pages for organizing major sections?
How do you maintain clarity when multiple teams need to collaborate and edit the same diagram?
Any Lucid best practices for scaling a diagram without losing structure?
Additionally, I’m upgrading my home setup and researching the best pc gaming computer that can handle heavy design work, multitasking, and occasional gaming. If anyone here uses Lucid on a high-performance machine, your hardware suggestions would be appreciated.
Best answer by Ambar D
Hi @oliviabarn, thank you for posting in the Lucid Community! This is a great question!
Here are a few tips and resources that may help you navigate and organize a large Lucid board, and work with collaborators:
To start out, I recommend checking out the Help Center article Adjust document and board settings, which walks through some settings that you can adjust that may help to navigate large diagrams. Specific settings I recommend playing with and seeing what you prefer are the following:
Enable/disable infinite canvas: You can work on an endless Lucid canvas by toggling on ‘infinite canvas’, which allows you to use use as much space as needed in your workspace. Alternatively, you can disable this to create a smaller canvas and allow for adjustment of page-specific settings. This may help the board feel a bit more manageable if you’re finding that your board is particularly large.
Adjust page size: You can choose from a common list of page sizes, or select custom to manually adjust the width and height of your pages.
Adjust scale of content: Use this setting to adjust the size of the content in your document relative to the page tiles. I recommend this feature to scale your content evenly without loosing the structure of your diagram.
You can also use the mini map feature to navigate a large board in Lucid, visualizing an overview of all content or jumping to another area of your board quickly. To read more about this feature, I reccomend the Navigate the Board and Canvas View Controls Help Center article.
I also recommend taking full advantage of the organization that frames and containers both provide.
After you’ve organized your content in a frame or container, you can apply assisted layout. This feature automatically aligns objects for a clean, structured workspace by snapping items into a grid pattern and adjusting container size as you add or remove content.
Additionally, you can hide content in a frame or hide content in a container. I’ve found that this is especially helpful when presenting or collaborating with others, when you desire to focus attention on one specific frame/container at a time. As you move through your presentation, you can unhide the content to make the relevant items visible.
If you’re using a frame specifically, one added benefit is that you can create and share a path. This helps to guide collaborators through a board’s content and tailor board navigation for specific audiences.
I recommend reading through the Collaborate in Lucid Help Center article to learn how to facilitate seamless and effective collaboration. A few specific items that I find particularly helpful:
Invite others to follow you: Using this feature invites all collaborators in the document to follow you as you navigate a document and see exactly what you are seeing in real-time.
Follow a collaborator: Allows you to follow another collaborator and see exactly what they are seeing in real-time.
Show authors on sticky notes: Display the name of a sticky note’s creator in the bottom-right corner of each sticky note.
Lastly, because you mentioned upgrading your home computer setup, I wanted to mention a few best practices that will help to ensure that you have the smoothest experience with Lucid’s products:
I recommend checking your local device against our system requirements. The table found here represents the minimum system requirements for RAM, Network bandwidth, and GPU, as well as our recommendations for optimized performance while using Lucid products. Note that Lucid highly recommends using a computer that has a discrete graphics card or Apple silicon to make use of WebGL, but it is not required. I also wanted to mention that Lucid is optimized for Google Chrome. For best performance, we recommend using Chrome and ensuring your browser is up to date.
I hope these tips help! Please let me know if you have any additional questions and I’d be happy to help further here.
Hi @oliviabarn, thank you for posting in the Lucid Community! This is a great question!
Here are a few tips and resources that may help you navigate and organize a large Lucid board, and work with collaborators:
To start out, I recommend checking out the Help Center article Adjust document and board settings, which walks through some settings that you can adjust that may help to navigate large diagrams. Specific settings I recommend playing with and seeing what you prefer are the following:
Enable/disable infinite canvas: You can work on an endless Lucid canvas by toggling on ‘infinite canvas’, which allows you to use use as much space as needed in your workspace. Alternatively, you can disable this to create a smaller canvas and allow for adjustment of page-specific settings. This may help the board feel a bit more manageable if you’re finding that your board is particularly large.
Adjust page size: You can choose from a common list of page sizes, or select custom to manually adjust the width and height of your pages.
Adjust scale of content: Use this setting to adjust the size of the content in your document relative to the page tiles. I recommend this feature to scale your content evenly without loosing the structure of your diagram.
You can also use the mini map feature to navigate a large board in Lucid, visualizing an overview of all content or jumping to another area of your board quickly. To read more about this feature, I reccomend the Navigate the Board and Canvas View Controls Help Center article.
I also recommend taking full advantage of the organization that frames and containers both provide.
After you’ve organized your content in a frame or container, you can apply assisted layout. This feature automatically aligns objects for a clean, structured workspace by snapping items into a grid pattern and adjusting container size as you add or remove content.
Additionally, you can hide content in a frame or hide content in a container. I’ve found that this is especially helpful when presenting or collaborating with others, when you desire to focus attention on one specific frame/container at a time. As you move through your presentation, you can unhide the content to make the relevant items visible.
If you’re using a frame specifically, one added benefit is that you can create and share a path. This helps to guide collaborators through a board’s content and tailor board navigation for specific audiences.
I recommend reading through the Collaborate in Lucid Help Center article to learn how to facilitate seamless and effective collaboration. A few specific items that I find particularly helpful:
Invite others to follow you: Using this feature invites all collaborators in the document to follow you as you navigate a document and see exactly what you are seeing in real-time.
Follow a collaborator: Allows you to follow another collaborator and see exactly what they are seeing in real-time.
Show authors on sticky notes: Display the name of a sticky note’s creator in the bottom-right corner of each sticky note.
Lastly, because you mentioned upgrading your home computer setup, I wanted to mention a few best practices that will help to ensure that you have the smoothest experience with Lucid’s products:
I recommend checking your local device against our system requirements. The table found here represents the minimum system requirements for RAM, Network bandwidth, and GPU, as well as our recommendations for optimized performance while using Lucid products. Note that Lucid highly recommends using a computer that has a discrete graphics card or Apple silicon to make use of WebGL, but it is not required. I also wanted to mention that Lucid is optimized for Google Chrome. For best performance, we recommend using Chrome and ensuring your browser is up to date.
I hope these tips help! Please let me know if you have any additional questions and I’d be happy to help further here.
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A Lucid or airfocus account is required to interact with the Community, and your participation is subject to the
Supplemental Lucid Community Terms.
You may not participate in the Community if you are under 18. You will be redirected to the Lucid or airfocus app to log in.
