Why we built SystemDraw

A while ago when I was learning System Design I researched plenty of online resources. Many of them were great in their own right, but none of them gave me an avenue for me to practice what I was learning. There are of course many generic online drawing tools that can be adapted to draw system design diagrams.

Use Of System Design Diagram Tools

System design diagram tool empower users to visually conceptualise complex structures, processes, and interactions. These tools streamline the creation of detailed diagrams, fostering efficient communication and precise system development. Craft intricate diagrams effortlessly and enhance project clarity with our user-friendly interface. Empower your team with streamlined collaboration.

However, I haven't found any tool that is specifically designed for drawing system design diagrams where I can just get on and start dragging client, server, database, cache, and load-balancer nodes into the canvas. Most of the time it is a bunch of rectangles and circles with lines connecting them.

For the tools that support system nodes, we could not add any relevant information to the nodes. During, system design we tend to discuss things like how we want to configure a node. For example, what kind of a database would we like it to be, SQL or No SQL? What would be the Replication strategy? In the case of a cache, what would be the eviction strategy? How would we write to the cache? In the case of a load balancer, what would be the load balancing strategy?

I wanted to build a tool that would help me draw visually appealing system design diagrams easily and quickly and also help me add attributes to the nodes. I wanted to see the diagram and it would be clear to me what kind of a system it is and how it is configured.

I am hoping more people like me will find this tool useful. Although I designed it to help students learn, it can easily be adapted by software architects to draw system design diagrams.