Tutorial: Diagram an AWS Architecture

In this walkthrough you'll build a small but real AWS architecture diagram — a serverless image-upload flow — using DocuShark's built-in cloud service icons, smart connectors, and auto-layout. About 15 minutes.

What you'll build: a diagram of Browser → CloudFront → S3 for static assets, plus API Gateway → Lambda → DynamoDB for the API.

You'll learn: the shape picker and cloud icon library, placing and labelling service icons, connecting them, tidying with auto-layout, theming, and exporting a shareable image.

Before you start: open DocuShark. If shapes and connectors are new to you, the Design Doc tutorial is a gentler start.

1. New document, diagram-first

From the Documents home, click New and rename it Image Service — AWS.

This document is all canvas, so switch to the Designer layout — press Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+2, or pick it from the layout selector chip in the toolbar. Designer gives the canvas the whole screen. See Layout Modes.

2. Open the cloud icon library

Click the Shapes button in the toolbar to open the shape picker. The picker groups shapes into categories — flowchart, UML, ERD, and cloud provider icons (AWS, Azure, GCP).

The fastest way in is search: type a service name (for example S3) in the picker's search box to find its icon across every library.

TIP

DocuShark ships hundreds of official cloud service icons, and they keep their brand colours in both light and dark themes. See Shape Libraries for the full catalog.

3. Place the services

Place six icons on the canvas — for each one, search it in the picker, click it, then click on the canvas to drop it:

• CloudFront
• S3
• API Gateway
• Lambda
• DynamoDB

Add one plain Rectangle (R) labelled Browser as the entry point. Double-click any icon to give it a label if you want (for example Static assets under S3).

Don't worry about neatness yet — auto-layout handles it.

4. Connect the flow

Press C (Connector). Hover a shape to reveal its connection points, click one, then click a connection point on the next shape. Build two paths:

• Static: Browser → CloudFront → S3
• API: Browser → API Gateway → Lambda → DynamoDB

Label the key hops — click a connector's label area and type, e.g. GET /img on Browser → CloudFront, and query on Lambda → DynamoDB.

5. Tidy with auto-layout

Select everything with Ctrl/Cmd+A, open the command palette (Ctrl/Cmd+K), and search "layout" to run auto-layout. DocuShark arranges the services into a clean, readable flow and re-routes the connectors. Move anything afterward and the connectors stay attached.

6. Make it yours

Give the diagram a consistent look:

• Select a shape and use the Property Panel to adjust fill, stroke, and text.
• Switch the whole document between light and dark, or apply a style profile, from the appearance controls. See Styling & Themes and Appearance.

7. Export a shareable image

Use Export to save the diagram:

• PNG or SVG for the current canvas — drop it in a wiki, a slide, or a PR.
• PDF if you've also written notes on a prose page.

See Export & Import for all formats.

What you learned

You built a real cloud architecture diagram from DocuShark's icon library, connected it with smart connectors, tidied it with auto-layout, themed it, and exported it. The same flow works for Azure and GCP icons — or your own custom shape libraries.

Next steps

• Import a diagram — already have diagrams in Mermaid, draw.io, or Excalidraw? Bring them straight in.
• UML & ERD Diagrams — model classes and data with purpose-built notations.
• Connect an AI Agent — have an agent draft a diagram like this from a description.