Frontend
Building Real-Time Diagrams with React Flow
By Vivek Jalondhara · 1 min read
Published Dec 2025 · Updated
React Flow handles the graph plumbing so you can focus on domain logic — floor plans, racks, and signal flow.
React Flow gave me a solid foundation for the AV suite's canvas: nodes, edges, panning, zooming, and selection out of the box. That let me spend my time on the domain — equipment placement, rack elevations, and signal-flow rules — instead of reinventing graph mechanics.
Custom nodes are where the product lives. Each equipment type renders its own node with ports, IDs, and metadata, and edges carry wire and connector classification used downstream for cable schedules.
Persistence and export are the unglamorous finale: serializing the graph to a stable schema and rendering it to crisp SVG/PDF so engineers get real, printable documentation.
Separate equipment identity from its placement
The same device may appear on several sheets. Keeping its equipment ID separate from a graph node ID prevents a placement from accidentally becoming a second physical device.
Illustrative example · TypeScript · Simplified for explanation
type EquipmentPlacement = {
nodeId: string;
equipmentId: string;
sheetId: string;
position: { x: number; y: number };
};- Equipment identity
- Per-sheet placement
- Graph interactions
- Shared documentation
Conceptual flow for the example above.
Tradeoff to keep in mind
The extra relationship requires consistency checks, but avoids duplicating device data in every drawing. Interactive editing alone does not imply multi-user synchronization.