Working with PlantUML

These are temporary instructions, pending a move of more diagrams and utilities from the IntelliJ Platform codebase.

• If you are unfamiliar with PlantUML, review the quick start instructions.
• Install Graphviz on your machine.
• Get and install the PlantUML Integration plugin for IntelliJ IDEA:
  • Set the GRAPHVIZ_DOT system or environment property to point to the directory containing the Graphviz executable on your machine. For example, export GRAPHVIZ_DOT="/usr/local/Cellar/graphviz/2.42.3/bin/dot"
  • In the PlantUML plugin Settings (Preferences/Settings | Other Settings | PlantUML) set:
    • The "Additional 'plantuml.include.path'" to be the absolute path to the directory containing the jb-plantuml-theme.puml file on your machine. For example, /<path to sdk root>/buildUML or, if you have the IntelliJ-Community source code, /<path to intellij-community root>/platform/docs/.
    • The "PlantUML config" to !include jb-plantuml-theme.puml

When a *.puml file is open in the IDE editor, the PlantUML Integration plugin will show a preview. To save a diagram in SVG format, change the file extension from the default PNG to SVG when saving the diagram from the preview window.