Thanks for the review! I think your conclusion is fair. If you are after a super simple whiteboard with limited functionality, then canvas is the better choice. If you want to create more tailor made diagrams, nest illustrations, etc. then Excalidraw will get the job done for you. It is always super helpful to see how people use the tool. I will clean up the link removal experience, I can see how that is frustrating. The rest of the chunkiness, as you say, is the result of Excalidraw being an independent component integrated into Obsidian. There is just so far you can go with blurring the boundary of a 3rd party component. There is a tradeoff between going deep into changing the 3rd party component, but loosing future updates to it, or adding bolt on features, which in the end will add complexity and result in chunkiness. I opted for the latter.
I appreciate you taking it in the spirit that it was intended. It's an awesome plug-in, and pretty obvious why it's #1 on the list of downloads. For me, it's a overpowered for how I'm usually using mind maps. Thanks for weighing in; what a time to be alive where you get to meet the people who make such awesome tools! ::high five::
Thanks for the walk through, Jonathan. I've toyed with both Canvas and Excalidraw, but really haven't seen a use case yet. Meanwhile, I'm using Obsidian extensively. Big thanks to all the developers. The one thought I had for either Canvas or Excalidraw is the following: an inventory of items in the house, represented graphically, by room and floor. This inventory could also include all the Alexa-based devices we have (around 30 to date), with their location/name/etc. Wondering if anyone has created such a map, and happy to take suggestions on how best to set this up.
I’ve been researching a similar use case. One simple solution could be scannable QR codes that link to a Google doc or something similar containing inventory data for each QR code category. Could be embedded in the floor plan graphic to marry the two together. Another option I’m researching currently is using a knowledge graph to create “rooms” as nodes interconnected by various properties for easy analysis. Could go full “2nd Brain” depending on how detailed the connections are.
I'm new to Obsidian (4 weeks and have fallen in love with it) and even newer to Excalidraw, and even though I've watched a bunch of videos on Excalidraw, I always pick up something new -- in yours, about the tray of tools when you're making adjustments to shapes, etc. Very helpful. On an unrelated note, the audio/video syncing (or lack of it LOL) makes parts of this video challenging to watch. What software do you use to record your videos? If you're using Ecamm Live, there's a setting in Audio Preferences to easily adjust the mic delay. Otherwise, it's usually pretty easy to adjust in your video editing software. Not a biggie, but your videos are already so good, this little tweak would keep them on the top shelf!
I just spot checked the video. I clicked into 6 different random spots in the video and the audio was perfectly in sync for the main camera & the screenshare portions. In case it's a browser-side issue, here's a fix I've seen work before that I found in a forum: 1. Delete all your cookies and cached images from Chrome for all time. 2. Sign out of your Google account and open RU-vid. 3. Open RU-vid and click 'settings' in the top right and sign into your account from there. (it will look really weird to do, not like the usual login for your account). 4. Once this is done, close the tab you used to login to RU-vid. 5. Open a new tab and open RU-vid again (either through 'favourites' or typing it in). 6. Sign into your account via the button in the top right corner and the issue should be fixed.
@@plus1creator I just went back and looked at it, too, and now it seems fine. I usually watch at about 1.5x speed, and I wonder if that contributes to the out-of-sync issues? Anyway, sorry to alarm you, and thank you so much for checking and taking the time to respond to my comment. I really enjoy your videos and will keep watching!
It's clunky and buggy because it involves way too much custom behaviour built on top of another app (Excalidraw itself and Obsidian). This is basically what happens when someone adds too many features without thinking about the scope of the project and its purpose or without using modern robust software development practices.
@@plus1creator Same for me. I just skimmed over the "Read me" section and saw that it had the length of a medium/large enterprise tool docs. And I just said, nope. Cool project, and I'm sure it's nice but no way I'm sinking that much time for it. Imagine an Obsidian update OR an Exaclidraw update breaking all of that custom behaviour all of a sudden.
Have you tried Excalidraw? What did you think? Did you wind up sticking with it? If you want something a little more light-weight, then you might want to watch my video about the core plug-in "Canvas." ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-H2coRmikAfo.html
Performer who uses applied psychology, showmanship, and moxie to make it look like you can predict the future, read minds, project thoughts, demonstrate mass hypnosis, etc. That's why my website is "I can read minds (dot) com"