Auto connecting elements in mxgraph by dragging - diagram

Standard way of drawing diagrams in mxgraph is to place elements and link them together with connections.
Is it possible to create invisible connection by dragging one element onto the other? Perfectly it should work like this:
You have element A and B each of them have two ports. Center of the north and south of the element.
You drag the element B. Still you should see the element and its ports while dragging.
When B hovers over A the ports of A should become visible.
When one of B ports hover over A port the ports should get highlighted.
You stop dragging. The connection between previously highlighted ports is created, but is invisible since the distance is 0. The connection spot is visible (a dot?)
If you decide to move A or B then the connection should be visible. Should look like a standard one.
If you move again A or B that way that already connected ports overlap the connection should be invisible again.
I am sorry for bad quality picture, but it is best I could do.

Related

Joint.js port connection position

I created custom elements with ports, but when connecting a link between them the link "arrow head" and port shape sometimes overlap with the "arrow head" inside the port. Another problem seems to be that if I move the elements around, it appears to disconnect at times.
Ultimately I would like the link to connect to a single point on the port and never "overlap" or "disconnect". Is there any way to prevent his behavior?
Note that in the images the blue "arrow head" only shows on mouse over.
link overlapping port
link looks disconnected
Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Cadence Virtuoso Layout L phantom objects

I have a cell (call it A) which is used once in a hierarchically higher cell (call it P). When I place A in P, its borders are rather larger than the actual content of A. When I descend to A and zoom-fit, it is way zoomed out, indicating there is something present way out on the edges.
I may have dragged objects there at one point but currently there is nothing visible. It is driving me crazy in terms of aligning objects, etc.
Is there any way to clean this up or something?
If I recall Cadence used to have a problem with leaving steiners behind when you moved routes. They are not visible but the db treats them as real objects for the bbox calculation. According to Cadence, deleting the objects should not harm anything. Open the layout in edit mode and paste this code into the CIW. This will delete all the steiner objects in your layout. If this was the root cause after saving you should see the bbox return to normal.
cv=geGetEditCellView()
foreach( item cv~>steiners
dbDeleteObject( item )
)
This thread may be considered "dead," but hopefully this helps.
It is possible the layers that are not visible are turned off.
To turn them on, go to the layers pane on the left. (If it is not there you can turn it on by going to Window —> Assistants —> Layers)
You can then click the drop down arrow in the top right corner and click Edit Valid Layers.
Then, click all valid in the Set Valid Layers popup. Click Ok.
Finally, check the Used Layers Only checkbox in the Layers pane. Look for any layers that weren't there before that you don't need.
Usually it happens when you draw the cell in LayoutXL, particularly when you insert pins.
Layer and purpose in these pins are selected separately for some reason, that is why it is easy to enter "impossible" combination.
Nothing happens, then you do it again and continue drawing. But there are several invisible squares that will continuously frustrate your inner perfectionist. You do the following:
Open this cell's layout, switch to Virtuoso window and enter:
lppList=list()
then:
foreach(shape hiGetCurrentWindow()~>cellView~>shapes if( (member(shape~>lpp lppList)==nil) then lppList=cons(shape~>lpp lppList)))
You have created the list with all layers in this layout, you can view it by entering:
lppList
You'll get something like this:
(("NW" "drawing")
("NP" "drawing")
("weird" "guy")
("M1" "pin")
("M3" "pin")
)
If you find a weird guy in this company, just enter the following command:
foreach(shape hiGetCurrentWindow()~>cellView~>shapes if((shape~>lpp == list("weird" "guy")) shape~>lpp = list("prBoundary" "drawing")))
If you see that some squares, labels (or whatever unseen before) appears as prBoundary, just delete it, save, and your layout will be small and shiny again.

Z-order while drag and drop between different scene graph branches

I have an interface where i want to drag an element from a list of elements to a GridPane. The grid and the list are in different branches of the scene graph. Because of that, my draggable Node disapears behind the GridPane, when i want to drag it over the grid.
One possible solution would be to add the draggable node to a frontmost Pane, where it will be in front of all other nodes. Unfortunately this means i have to remove the node from its old position before i know that the drag and drop gesture will be successfull, which leads to all kinds of additional code.
Is there a way to have a node rendered in front of all other nodes without changing its position in the scene graph?
Is the "draggable Node" actually being moved around by the cursor? If so, you could create an Image from the node and drag that around?

Visio 2010: Prevent Co-Linear Connector Routes

I have recently picked up Microsoft Office Visio 2010 in the interest of drawing out the execution flow of a software application I am planning. So far I have enjoyed the program, and it has helped me significantly to figure out exactly what interactions and events I will need for the program even before I begin coding it. However, there is one gripe I have with the software, as I add new elements to the diagram, Visio tends to try to combine routes as often as possible. This can make it difficult at times to see exactly where some of the routes are pointing. For example:
Example 1: Example 2:
In Example 1, You can see that there are three routes, each with a different label. Originally, these labels would overlap each other as well. I figured out this can be turned off in the "Page Layout" dialog, so it's a little better than it was, but the beginnings and ends of the route are still combined. Here it's not really an issue, but it could be as shown in Example 2.
What's pointing where in Example 2? The line coming in from the left is pointing at the diamond on the bottom, and then there are three routes coming out the top of the diamond. This is the problem I'm trying to solve. It's not shown in these examples, but putting labels on those three routes in Example 2 puts the labels all on that long stretch of vertical, which makes it impossible to tell which label corresponds to which line.
Is there a way to prevent the lines from overlapping like this? I have fully explored the "Page Setup" dialog, but none of the options available there seem to allow this behavior. The only solution I was able to find online was to draw all the routes manually, but this would mean I cannot use the "Re-Layout Page" feature, and it could be rather time-intensive if Visio decides to do it often.
Update: While messing around with some more settings trying to find a solution to this, I came up with a great example showing just how bad this can get. Now, this is an extreme example, and if your diagrams look like this you're probably doing it wrong, but it clearly shows that it can quickly become impossible to tell what the source and destination for each line is.
After many more hours of searching for ways to make routes either not overlap or play nice, the only solution I've found that keeps being recommended is to re-arrange the routes manually. Changing things like snap settings and page layout options do help to some degree, but not completely. Hopefully the next incarnation of Visio will handle this better. Oh well, it's still a great tool and has definitely helped me visualize execution flow.
This may not be the solution for you but in my network diagrams, I can perform the following.
In Visio 2010 click Design tab, now click Connectors, and select curved.
It separates the lines but again it might not look right for a flow chart.
I'm having the exact same issue and have not found a satisfactory solution.
I've tried all the permutations of snap/glue settings, layout behaviour and connector behaviour with no success.
The best solution I've found so far is to manually add multiple connector points to your source and destination and use those to connect your shapes. Make sure 'no overlap' is specified for your connectors. You can then use the automatic align/layout tools and get something reasonably unambiguous.
You do lose the benefits of dynamic glue but you can mitigate that by deleting connection points (ie from one side of a shape) to force Visio to use your custom connections. You'll also have to disable 'glue to geometry' in the snap/glue options.
http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/visio-help/add-move-or-delete-connection-points-HP001231166.aspx
Please update this question if you find a better solution.
Huh. Most of the time, I have trouble getting my lines to overlap nicely :).
You might try changing some of the Snap & Glue settings:
On the View tab, in the Visual Aids group, click the dialog box launcher (the little two-headed arrow). In the Snap & Glue dialog box, I'd try changing the Snap to setting for Shape geometry.
I cna't tell if you're talking about doing this from code or not, but I've found the Design -> Layout -> Re-Layout option takes care of this.
Similarly to Alex I've found adding my own glue points to shapes and removing the default ones helps enormously. So does making sure one has appropriate settings under Page Setup | Layout and Routing:
Style: Right Angle
Separate: All lines
Overlap: No Lines
Appearance: Straight
Spacing: I found all these distances especially important
Being aware of the setting for each connector under Developer | Behaviour | Connector | Reroute, how that setting changes from "Freely" to "On Crossover" when a connector is rerouted manually is also important. Sometimes I find it necessary to set a particular connector to "Never". Also useful is the ability to select all the connectors (and NOT the shapes) with Select by Type when forcing Visio to reroute.
I'm doing this with Visio 2013's ERD diagrams and I've noticed that whilst I have defined my own connection points now on each entity it is usually best not to actually select them but let Visio dynamically select the "best" one - then if I re-arrange the entities the re-routing still works. One curiosity I've noticed is that Visio's connectors do not align with my connection points at the bottom of each entity but (since I deleted the OotB connection point at the bottom of the entity at any rate) is spacing the connectors appropriately. Along the top and down the sides the connectors are dynamically attached in the same places as my connection points.
I still sometimes have problems with connectors being placed under/inside/through entities (so a connector running through/inside/under a shape) [with ERD's especially with self-referential relationships] despite Developer | Behavior settings on both the connector and the shape seemingly to prevent that. Those are often the ones I have to route manually and set to re-route "Never".
[Visio 2016]
Not a complete solution, just an aid to manual re-routing, ...
Add "Connection Point" to the two shapes. Each connection line will then have its own route, ... though some overlapping might still occur.
Being graphically challenged, here is how I accomplish it, ...
Select the one of shapes (I have to also zoom in to get better placement control).
Select the X in the [Home] menu bar.
The selected shape will have small bumps for any shape connection points.
Press and hold the Ctrl key and hover on the boarder of the shape, the mouse cursor will change to show where a point would be added.
Ctrl-Click to add a connection point. Here I added 10 or so points.
Add additional connection points to the other shape and move the connectors to use unique points on the two shapes. Your connectors will be (more or less) separated.

When two CCMenuItem overlaps each other, is it possible to prioritise one over the other?

I have 2 CCMenuItems A and B
A is a screen-wide transparent button
and B is an actual button that is set to visible when A is touched
Currently, when I'm touching B, A responds with it's selector method and basically B does not respond because the touch is 'taken' by A's selector.
I need B to be responding even though A is a screen-wide button so- Is it possible to prioritise B's selector when it is pushed?
To summarize, I'm toggling B's visibility via A and would like to be able to use B when it is visible.
Is this possible? How can it be done?
for me worked adding one menu in one layer and another menu in other layer
I)
Yes, You can prioritize your CCMenuItems by setting Z-Order.
First button that gets touch is the button with lowest Z-Order.
II)
And if you want to prioritize your CCMenus, you need to setTouchPriority(..) them.
The less priority you give, the earlier your CCMenu will handle the touch. (CCMenu's default value is -128 ).
Either you can set the buttons yourButton.isEnabled to NO or you can just move the A-button off the scene when you don't want it to take input.
It's possible to use an additional CCMenu with a higher z-order for the button B.

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