How a .vsdx file becomes BPMN 2.0

What goes in

• A .vsdx file, up to 100 pages. A very large file can be refused: the limit is about 5,000 shape records, counting the parts of grouped shapes.
• Up to 50 MB with an account, 10 MB for the test without an account.
• Older .vsd files must be saved again as .vsdx first.

How shapes are recognised

For each shape, the converter looks in this order and stops at the first answer:

1. The BPMN properties stored in the shape by the BPMN stencil: element type, task type, event trigger, collapsed or expanded.
2. The name of the stencil master, in English or in French: task, gateway, start event, pool, lane, sub-process and so on.
3. The outline of the shape, for events and gateways drawn with a flowchart stencil: a circle, a thick circle, a double circle, a diamond.

Cross-functional flowcharts are read too: their swimlanes become pools and lanes.

The conversion follows fixed rules. No AI model reads your file, and the same file always gives the same result.

What comes out

One .bpmn file in BPMN 2.0 XML, with:

• Every page of the file. The pages are placed one under the other in a single diagram, so a tool that shows one diagram per file has all of them in that diagram.
• The layout you drew. Positions and sizes are taken from the original file. A connector follows the route stored in the file when it records one; otherwise a straight or right-angled line is drawn, and curves become straight segments. Each converted element carries its diagram information (BPMN DI), which most tools need to draw it.
• Pools and lanes, with each element in its lane.
• Events: start, end, intermediate, and boundary when the file records what the event is attached to, with their type (message, timer, signal, error, terminate, escalation, compensation, cancel, link, conditional).
• Tasks: plain, user, service, script, manual, business rule, send and receive.
• Gateways: exclusive, parallel, inclusive, event-based and complex.
• Expanded sub-processes with their content inside, when the original file records which shapes belong to the sub-process.
• Sequence flows and message flows, with their labels, and text annotations.

What to check after converting

Automatic conversion does not cover everything. These are the known gaps today:

• Data objects, data stores and groups come out as tasks. Change their type in your BPMN tool.
• Call activities come out as plain tasks.
• The line between an annotation and its element is written as a sequence flow, or as a message flow if it is dashed, instead of an association. Delete it and draw an association.
• A dashed connector is treated as a message flow. On a page without pools it is left out.
• A flowchart “Start/End” shape always becomes a start event. Change the ones that end the process.
• A connector attached at one end only is left out. In the original file, glue both ends to a shape.
• A shape drawn by hand, without a stencil master, is left out. A stencil shape the converter does not know becomes a plain task.
• Collapsed sub-processes are converted as an empty sub-process, without a link to another page.
• Page names are not carried over, and lanes are always written as horizontal.
• No execution details: conditions on flows, forms or service settings are not part of a drawing and are not invented.

Always compare the result with your original before using it. The test page shows a report with the number of elements by type, which ones were recognised from the BPMN data stored in the shape and which from the stencil name or the outline, the elements with no flow, and the activities with no label.

What happens to your file

• Test without an account: neither the file nor the result is kept.
• With an account: the source file is deleted from our storage when the conversion ends. The BPMN result stays available for 24 hours, and you can delete it earlier.
• The line in your conversion history (file name, a fingerprint of the source file, number of pages and shapes, status, dates) stays until you delete it.
• Your files are not used to train AI models unless you give separate, explicit consent.

The details are in the Privacy Policy.

Where the BPMN file goes next

The result is standard BPMN 2.0 XML. Vsdx2Bpmn sells no modelling tool, so you take the file where you want. See the import guides for Camunda, SAP Signavio and Bizagi.