Blueprint Modeler 1.5.0

Blueprint Modeler 1.5.0 makes models look and read like finished blueprints: a title block with an Artifact ID, description and date; five ways to lay a model out; and a new animation that follows data from a business capability down to the hosts it runs on. You can also link straight to any example. As always, models never leave your browser and saved files keep working unchanged.

What's new

A cleaner canvas (M37). Connection points stay hidden until you hover over or select an element, or while you draw a relationship, so unconnected sides no longer show stray squares. Arrowheads are larger and keep their size, so you can see them even on tight curves.

Model details and a title block (M38, M39). A model can now carry an optional description, an Artifact ID and a date. You edit them on the Details tab, and the date starts as the day the model was made. They appear as a title block above the diagram on the canvas, in Present mode, and in exported SVG images and GIFs. The Artifact ID gets a tag icon, and parts you leave empty are not shown. The Model menu is now a panel listing every stored model with its Artifact ID, a snippet of its description, element and relationship counts, and when it last changed. Example and new-model names use Title Case.

Better examples (M39). Every example has a one-sentence description and a numbered Artifact ID (BM-EX-001 to BM-EX-015). Every example now has a Business Capability or Business Process to anchor it. A new hint suggests adding one when your own model has neither.

Layout menu (M40). The Auto-layout button is now a Layout menu with five arrangements, all organized by CSDM layer:

• Auto-layout: works as before.
• Top to bottom: one row per layer.
• Left to right: one column per layer. Lanes become columns, and relationships run sideways between layers.
• Symmetric: every layer centered on one axis.
• Fill space: spreads the picture out to the shape of the view.

Each is a single undo step, and layer boxes and lanes follow the arrangement.

Data flow (M41). Right-click a Business Capability or Business Process, or use the Inspector, and choose Show data flow. Data travels step by step from that element through everything it relies on, in its own color, with Play, Pause and step controls. Export › Data flow animation (GIF) saves it with one frame per step.

Links to examples (M42, M43). model.mikereams.com/editor?example=checkout opens that example straight away. On a first visit it opens only the example, with no empty model beside it. Reloading the page doesn't add a second copy. An unknown name opens the editor as usual and says so. The README lists every example name.

More reliable saving (M42, M43). A save now counts only once the browser has actually written it. If storage is full, you are told, and nothing reports success that didn't happen. That covers autosave, examples and imports.

Compatibility

Still model file format 1. Files exported from 1.0.0 through 1.4.0 open as before. The description, Artifact ID and date are optional fields: a file saved by 1.5.0 still opens in 1.4.0, which ignores those three. Example names are stable now that other pages link to them. Four examples gained a Business Capability: Shared Database Platform, Remote Access VPN, Server Virtualization and Virtual Desktops (VDI). Server Virtualization also gained a Virtualization management application.

ArchiMate® is a registered trademark of The Open Group. Blueprint Modeler is not affiliated with or endorsed by ServiceNow.

Full milestone details: SPEC.md · Try it: model.mikereams.com

Blueprint Modeler 1.4.0

Blueprint Modeler 1.4.0 groups the starter examples by category and adds eight new ones, covering security architecture, ServiceNow as a platform, server virtualization and virtual desktops, with 12 new CMDB classes to draw them. As always, models never leave your browser and saved files keep working unchanged.

What's new

Examples by category (M35). The toolbar's Examples list is now a menu of categories: Application architecture, Security architecture, ServiceNow platform, Reference architecture, and Frameworks and metamodel. Each example shows a short summary, and Blank model comes first. It works from the keyboard, and Escape closes it. The empty canvas groups the examples the same way. The About page now explains the blast radius.

Eight new examples (M36). All of them are fictional:

• Security architecture: Internet edge and DMZ, Directory and sign-in services, Remote access VPN.
• ServiceNow platform: ServiceNow service management, ServiceNow instances and MID Servers, ServiceNow integrations. These model ServiceNow as a platform in its own CMDB.
• Reference architecture: Server virtualization, and Virtual desktops (VDI), alongside Storefront on Kubernetes for containerization.

Each one tells a blast-radius story. Show the blast radius of the edge certificate, a MID Server host or an ESX Server to see what it reaches.

12 CMDB classes (M36). Turn on View › Extended classes to get them in the palette:

• Server virtualization: VMware vCenter Instance, Datacenter, Cluster and Datastore, ESX Server, VMware Virtual Machine Instance.
• Security: Firewall Device, Firewall Cluster, Load Balancer, Virtual Private Network, Unique Certificate, Active Directory Domain Controller.

Each class cites ServiceNow's public product documentation, and the class guide links to every source. The virtualization relationships use the types and directions ServiceNow documents. ServiceNow's documentation does not name types for the security relationships, so those use standard CMDB types and are marked conventional. Blast-radius rules and ArchiMate® readings cover all the new classes.

Compatibility

No change to the model file format: files exported from 1.0.0 through 1.3.0 open as before. The seven existing examples are unchanged.

ArchiMate® is a registered trademark of The Open Group. Blueprint Modeler is not affiliated with or endorsed by ServiceNow.

Full milestone details: SPEC.md · Try it: model.mikereams.com

Blueprint Modeler 1.3.0

Blueprint Modeler 1.3.0 adds a blast-radius view: pick an element, see what is affected if it fails, hop by hop, and save the animation as a GIF. As always, models never leave your browser and saved files keep working unchanged.

What's new

Show blast radius (M33). Right-click an element (or press Shift+F10 on it), or use the button in the Inspector. The element is marked failed, then each hop of elements that depend on it lights up in turn with a numbered badge, and the relationships that carried the impact turn amber, the current hop's dashes running the way impact travels. A bar above the canvas has Play/Pause, Previous and Next, a count such as "Hop 2 of 4 · 3 of 7 affected", and a list of every hop. Switch to Dependencies to walk the other way and see what the element needs. Each step is announced to screen readers, Escape returns you to where you started, and with reduced motion it opens paused on the whole radius with nothing moving. It never changes the model.

Blast radius animation (GIF) (M34). While a blast radius is open, Export › Blast radius animation (GIF) saves it as an animated image: one frame per hop with a caption, in the theme you are viewing, up to 1600 px. It is made entirely in your browser, and the file carries a text summary of every hop.

How impact travels (M32). The class guide has a new section listing, for every relationship CSDM allows, which end is affected when the other fails, with the evidence and a ServiceNow-hosted source. One direction (Depends on::Used by) is stated in ServiceNow-hosted material; the others are conventional readings of the relationship types and are marked as such. This is a what-if on your model, not ServiceNow's Impacted Services calculation.

Working with the TOGAF® standard (M31). The guide's ArchiMate section now explains how the ArchiMate views and the ArchiMate export fit a TOGAF-based practice. It contains no TOGAF content and makes no claim of TOGAF conformance or certification. TOGAF is a registered trademark of The Open Group.

Under the hood

The GIF is encoded by a small GIF89a encoder written for this project (no new dependency), running in a background worker. Its output was checked with the browser's own decoder and with Pillow, ffmpeg and ImageMagick. Plain SVG exports are byte-for-byte unchanged.

Compatibility

No change to the model file format: files exported from 1.0.0, 1.1.0 and 1.2.0 open as before.

Full milestone details: SPEC.md · Try it: model.mikereams.com

Blueprint Modeler 1.2.0

Blueprint Modeler 1.2.0 gives the landing page a three-part tour of what the app does and fixes three ways a model could quietly end up different from what you left. As always, models never leave your browser and saved files keep working unchanged.

What's new

Three figures on the landing page (M28). The hero now rotates through three figures on one drawing sheet: the realization chain from Business Capability down to Host; Caught early, where a shortcut from a Business Application straight to a Host is refused with the editor's own message and the Application Service is shown as the route; and Read it in ArchiMate, where the same elements take their ArchiMate types, colors and notation. It changes every 8 seconds, pauses on hover, and has Pause/Play and 01/02/03 buttons. With reduced motion it starts paused and changes without animation.

Fixes

Deleted models stay deleted (M29). Deleting the open model right after an edit could, on a slow machine, bring the model back, and Delete all could leave a second empty model behind. A change still waiting to be saved can no longer write a deleted model back.

Auto-layout stays with its own model (M29). If you opened another model while Auto-layout was still running, the finished layout could move elements in the model you had just opened. It now stops and says so, and nothing moves.

Switching models keeps your last change (M30). A change made a moment before switching to another model (from the model picker, Manage, New, Examples or Import) could be lost. It is now saved first. If it can't be saved, for example because browser storage is full, the switch stops, your change stays on screen, and a message explains why.

Under the hood

The end-to-end tests that failed only on a busy machine were fixed at their cause, not retried away, and each bug fix above comes with a test that failed before the fix.

Compatibility

No change to the model file format: files exported from 1.0.0 and 1.1.0 open as before.

Full milestone details: SPEC.md · Try it: model.mikereams.com

Blueprint Modeler 1.1.0

Blueprint Modeler 1.1.0 adds an ArchiMate view you can actually read, a plain-English reading of every model, and a cleaner editor. As always, models never leave your browser and saved files keep working unchanged.

What's new

ArchiMate 3.2 notation (M26). In the ArchiMate 3.2 only lens, relationships are drawn the way ArchiMate draws them: filled and hollow diamonds for composition and aggregation, a dot and arrow for assignment, a dashed line with a hollow triangle for realization, an open arrow for serving, and a dotted line for access. A legend lists the types your model uses. Elements take their ArchiMate layer color (business, application, technology and more), checked for contrast in light and dark themes, and SVG exports in this lens match the canvas.

Read this model (M26). A new Read tab beside Hints says every relationship as a sentence, such as Business Capability "Order management" is provided by Business Application "Checkout". The wording follows the lens, the list narrows to the selected element, and choosing a sentence highlights that relationship on the canvas.

Clearer toolbar (M24). Buttons have icons and sit in labeled groups (Model, Edit, Arrange, Lens), Present stands out, and the hint count moved onto the Hints tab.

Start blank (M25). The empty-state card and the Examples list offer a blank model first, with focus moved straight to the palette.

Security (M27)

Closes all seven Dependabot alerts. PostCSS, a build-time CSS tool, moves to the patched 8.5 line through a pnpm override: Next.js 15 pins an older version, and the built CSS is byte-identical. Vitest, a test-only tool, moves to 4.1.11. pnpm audit reports no known vulnerabilities.

Compatibility

No change to the model file format: files exported from 1.0.0 open as before. Every change is view-only, and the CSDM and CSDM + ArchiMate lenses look as they did.

Full milestone details: SPEC.md · Try it: model.mikereams.com

Blueprint Modeler 1.0.0

The first release of Blueprint Modeler: a free, browser-only canvas for modeling application architecture with ServiceNow's Common Service Data Model. Use it at model.mikereams.com; no sign-up, and your models stay in your browser.

What's in 1.0.0

Area	What you get
Palette	25 classes: the 19 in the CSDM 5 white paper plus 6 CMDB Kubernetes classes, laid out by layer; 11 more from the white paper under View › Extended classes
Allowed relationships only	101 relationship pairs, each typed from public ServiceNow material and marked reported or conventional; live green/red feedback while you draw
Conformance hints	10 checks that advise rather than block, each linked to its source
Suggestions and focus	A new element offers what it can connect to; selecting an element shades its direct neighbors; hover shows its description
Layers	Layer boxes and lanes, move a layer with everything in it, distribute evenly, auto-layout by CSDM layer, Present mode
ArchiMate	CSDM + ArchiMate 3.2 lens, an ArchiMate-only lens, and a Model Exchange File export that opens in Archi
Exports	JSON (round-trips exactly), SVG (light and dark), draw.io / Lucidchart, ArchiMate XML, and a ServiceNow import workbook (.xlsx)
Examples	Seven, including the CSDM 5 core metamodel and a claims system read purely in ArchiMate
Your models	Saved as you work in this browser; Manage… opens, downloads or deletes them
Accessibility	Keyboard paths for every canvas action, light and dark themes, checked against WCAG 2.2 AA

Run it yourself

pnpm install
pnpm dev      # http://localhost:3000
pnpm build    # static export in out/, servable by any static host

There's no package to install: Blueprint Modeler is a web app. The attached source archives are the code at this release.

Contributing

Rule corrections are the most useful contribution: open a rule correction with the public source and page. See CONTRIBUTING.md.

Not affiliated with or endorsed by ServiceNow, The Open Group, Lucid Software or JGraph. ServiceNow and CSDM are trademarks of ServiceNow, Inc.; ArchiMate® is a registered trademark of The Open Group.