Hi Stoyan,

The links in my graphs are ugly. I was wondering if you could help me with that. If possible, I don't want the user to be able to manually change the links. I don't use automatic node layout.

I have the following routing options:

this.diagram.RoutingOptions.Anchoring = MindFusion.Diagramming.Anchoring.Keep;
this.diagram.RoutingOptions.CrossingCost = ((byte)(15));
this.diagram.RoutingOptions.EndOrientation = MindFusion.Diagramming.Orientation.Horizontal;
this.diagram.RoutingOptions.GridSize = 16F;
this.diagram.RoutingOptions.NodeVicinitySize = 8F;
this.diagram.RoutingOptions.StartOrientation = MindFusion.Diagramming.Orientation.Horizontal; 

My two main problems are that sometimes my links are overlapping (making it unclear to know where the links are going) and that the arrow is placed vertically (it should always be horizontal to make sure that the origin/destination is visually clear).

I'll send by email two files (Saved with diagram.SaveToXml) that show those problems. I used the entity sample again (from a fresh start) to demonstrate/try/reproduce my problem.

Thanks!
Marie

Hi Stoyan,

Thanks for your proposition.

Do you know if I can do something about the arrows pointing vertically even if EndOrientation & StartOrientation are set to Horizontal?

Thanks,
Marie

Yes, I tried it and it fails... It's annoying because in my real case I have many outputs and sometimes it looks like the link comes from 1 output below or above even if it doesn't...

I was using my old flowchart version. I could try it with the new beta 5.2

Hi,

I tried that (also tried modifying RoutingOptions.GridSize), but now it's even worst...

Could it be caused by something else? Why does SmartPolylineEnds, StartOrientation & EndOrientation are not respected?

Thanks,
Marie

Hi Stoyan,

It works much better! I didn't change any length settings and it's fine now.

The problem seems to be with the Anchoring.Keep property that doesn't do as I expected. What does it do exactly? In the documentation, it says
Quote:

Does it mean that if it is set to Ignore, some links could be away from my anchor points? Or that links could jump to another anchor point?

When I turn it on (with default properties except for End & Start Orientation set to Horizontal), it seems to try to remove overlapping of 2 links going to the same output. It then results in a vertical arrow. Why?

Thanks a lot!
Marie

Hi Stoyan,

I'm not using the same nodes that I sent you (they were just tableNodes) and in my case the links are on the table border. It should be easier.

I'll keep playing with the parameters as you suggested.

Thanks,
Marie

Hi Stoyan,

This is really helping the speed (almost twice faster)

I encountered a crash while routing nodes with a EndPointsOffset = 15 (doing tests to find the perfect value):

'System.IndexOutOfRangeException': Index was outside the bounds of the array.
   at MindFusion.Layout.xf04e61527b110650.x39adfecc61da6fd2(Byte[,] x3040c866fac95193, Point& x10aaa7cdfa38f254, Int32 x9488dccada4a6aaf, Point& xca09b6c2b5b18485, Int32 x2894e30202ea4010, Int32 x8e9e10337ba63c4d, Int32 xaa1eb5e30dc50ab1, RoutingOptions xf880fd3cd1e615e7)
   at MindFusion.Layout.xf04e61527b110650.x316b6250e36bf536(x20f78b8226aded3c xbd2f940ea4f1d446)
   at MindFusion.Diagramming.DiagramLink.x7ad5b2ddb80d9c00(Boolean x5113d1e6ef8a0405, ConnectionPoint x97530273d342b6f8, ConnectionPoint xdc3523bf52410ca4, Boolean xd7e6563b6d99ef1f, DiagramItemCollection xe4c3200aa4f42cb0)
   at MindFusion.Diagramming.DiagramLink.x7ad5b2ddb80d9c00(Boolean x5113d1e6ef8a0405, Boolean x9ae6a5d81c16a985, DiagramItemCollection xe4c3200aa4f42cb0)
   at MindFusion.Diagramming.DiagramLink.Route() 

Thanks a lot to you and your team!
Marie

Hi Stoyan,

I don't have the crash anymore, thanks a lot for the quick update (sorry it took time to answer, I refactored my code therefore I wasn't able to run nor test the build).

To route my links, I start with a gridsize=40. Then, I route links that start vertically with a gridsize=20. Thirdly, I route links that are still vertical with a gridsize=7. I finish by forcing the beginning points of the remaining vertical links.

Using EndPointsOffset = 0, I have less outgoing vertical links (49/5/0 instead of 74/36/4) and it's faster (about twice as fast as I mentionned before).

If I use a different EndPointsOffset, it's still fast, but I have the same amount of vertical links (or more) and the links are even uglier.

In both cases (with EndPointsOffset=0 or bigger by example 1, 5 or 7), my links are uglier than they used do, meaning that they do unecessary turns, overlap each other more & sometimes even cross nodes.

I also have a strange behavior. I have two nodes linked with each other. They are both contained within a container node. When I click and hold the left-button of the mouse on the container, the link is not drawn the same way that it used to. When I release the button, the link is back where it used to be.

I'll send you pictures of all those problems by email.

Many thanks!
Marie