Be able to just simply draw a block, and not put any text in it, have it be a "group" or something with a background color.. Something like that.

You can insert an object and do this. Did you try that? There are diffent shapes, you can change the color, and you can make the appearance contain as much text as you want.

how do you insert this object, I don't see this,.. How do you send it to the back?

how do you insert this object, I don't see this,.. How do you send it to the back?

I cant find the decision either
I've to draw a rack with devices in it. So rack must to be behind other devices.
I draw a rack using static object with shape of rect with text
". ."
". ."
". ."
... etc

if it would be a menu item "Send backward" or "Send to back" like in any other object editor program.
But unfortunally i didnt found it

you also can add some static items without any labels at perimeter of needed area, and add links between them
and label at top of this construction

I would love this feature too. It would make The Dude's Map almost as good as Visio

There is a workaround I have been using:
1) Use Microsoft Paint (or similar) to draw things like racks on a blank canvas (I use 1450x1050 for my 24" screen - allows for side and bottom Windows Start Bar).
2) Save the file as .png (or .jpg or whatever you like)
3) Copy the file into The Dude's "data\files\images" folder.
3) Go to Dude, open a map
4) Choose Settings -> Image
5) Set Background to the image you created.
6) Make sure that Tile is NOT ticked.
7) Go to General and set Default Zoom to Fit.
Click on Apply, OK
9) Wait for the Dude to update the screen (usually happens immediately, but sometimes can take a little while).
10) Place your Devices on the rack (you may have to resize them a bit)

The Dude is very good with scaling, so if another display is bigger or smaller (8" like NetBook or 54" wall screen), everything still looks right.

An additional improvement to adding the Block (either transparent or with z-order) would be the "No Shape" option for devices, so that there will be no coloured background. The only problem with this is that the Shape is used to display Green=OK, Red=Dead. So Dude would maybe need to Red-out the device's image when it fails; or maybe have a green/red flag on it somewhere.

thanks for advice
i already used this trick but its very uncomfortable
so i can have only 1 obj behind others and this object is immovable

but if your map changes very rare, so maybe this trick may be useful