IteraFigure: Editable Structured Scientific Diagram Generation with Atomic Local Editing

A generated scientific figure is rarely final. Authors rename a module, enlarge a label, or shift a group, and each of these requests is small and local. Most systems nevertheless deliver an image or an editable file with no persistent state behind it, so one small revision triggers full regeneration and disturbs already-verified content. We present IteraFigure, whose product of generation is not a rendered image but a persistent object graph, so generation and revision operate on one structured state. A revision is an atomic local edit on this state, not a regeneration. In the editor, the user's selection states which region should change, an interaction design that lets authors express a revision more precisely and conveniently than language alone. The selected scope is then enforced mechanically. A deterministic guard validates the whole operation batch against the scope before mutation, and an accepted batch commits atomically, leaving every object outside the scope with identical content, style, geometry, hierarchy, and endpoints. Locality is thereby turned from a request in natural language into a property decidable at commit time. On FigureBench, IteraFigure attains the highest overall quality among ranked systems while every element stays addressable, and under a matched-input protocol that gives every system the same editing interface it strictly passes 99.3% of single-turn local edits while preserving every unrelated visible element. The advantage compounds over ten-step mixed editing chains, where it still completes 96.7% at the final step, and a blinded study rates its outputs highest for visual quality, topology accuracy, and publication willingness.