On Sun, 14 Jan 2001, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Hello,
>
> First off, this is a wonderful program, many thanks!
>
> I'm using dia 0.86 and am unable to figure out how to get "smart"
> connections that notice when they cross other connections and create a
> little line jump to signify that this connection crosses, but does not
> connect to the other connection. A common example of this would be in a
> wiring diagram which I have attempted to show with some ASCII art below.
>
> +
> | <- connector 1
> |
> |
> /|\
> +---------+ | +----------+ <- connector 2 crosses #1
> |
> |
> |
> +
>
> Manually placing segments or corners in a line to simulate the crossover
> point is only a partial solution because the crossover point has not been
> associated with the connection it crosses, and thus will not follow it
> should one or the other connector move. With Visio this is an automatic
> property of the dynamic connector, is there some means of getting this
> behavior in dia? Perhaps what this really requires is another line
> object type that has this property and allows the addition of both both
> connection points and corners (or segments). If a new line object was
> added, I would think the crossover property would only apply when
> crossing another instance of the same type.
We are quite a ways behind Visio when it comes to smart lines. Not just
lines that do 'jumps' like that, but also lines that attempt to find the
best route for a line from one object to another, avoiding collisions. It
would be very exciting to work on, but I think that would be for a version
1.2, as it'd probably require quite a bit of rework and thought. There are
more pressing issues right now, like font support, consistency and
rotating.
-Lars
--
Lars Clausen (http://shasta.cs.uiuc.edu/~lrclause) | Hårdgrim of Numenor
"I do not agree with a word that you say, but I | Retainer of Sir Kegg
will defend to the death your right to say it." | of Westfield
--Evelyn Beatrice Hall paraphrasing Voltaire | Chaos Berserker of Khorne
