We are starting beta tests for Flowchart.NET v5.1. If anyone is interested in trying it out, download a copy from here:

https://mindfusion.eu/_beta/FCNet51Beta.zip

Version 5.1 has the following enhancements and new features:

* Display graphs in 3D *
Now you can assign 3D positions to diagram nodes, and display their projections on screen using the DiagramView3D control. 3D positions are set through the LayoutTraits property of nodes by associating a Point3D value with the View3D.Position key. The size of nodes is inferred from their Bounds property. The CameraPosition and CameraRotation properties let you specify the position of the camera within the 3D scene. The nodes are always rendered as if facing the camera, i.e. you cannot view them edge on.

* SpringLayout animation *
The simulated physical process used in SpringLayout can be animated. Use the BeginArrange method to prepare the layout object for animation. Call Iterate from a timer event handler to run a few iterations of the process and update the node positions. Finally, call EndArrange to free the resources allocated by the algorithm.

* SpringLayout in 3D *
The Layout3D property of SpringLayout can be used to arrange nodes in 3D space instead of setting their 2D positions. A graph arranged with this option can be displayed using the DiagramView3D control.

* PdfExporter enhancements *
The EnableBackground property specifies whether the background of PDF pages should be painted using the diagram's BackBrush.
The DefaultEncoding property lets you specify a far-eastern text encoding.

* Miscellaneous *
New CreateImage overloads added.
ScrollUpHyperLink and ScrollDownHyperLink properties added to HtmlBuilder.
ShapeXml and ConnectorXml arguments passed to VisioImporter events.
The MergeUndoRecords lets you merge multiple undo records into one.
StartOrientation and EndOrientation properties added to OrthogonalLayout.

* API changes *
The MasterGroup property has been moved from DiagramItem to DiagramNode.
The DiagramItemState and DiagramItemProperties -derived classes corresponding to the built-in diagram item types have been made public. This should make it easier to implement undo for properties added to custom item types derived from the built-in ones.

Additionally, there are two new samples included:
~ SpringLayout ~ demonstrates animated 3D SpringLayout.
~ SequenceDiagram ~ shows how to let users draw a sequence diagram.

Thanks to anyone who tries the beta version,
Stoyan