The diagram properties are set as follows:

internal void SetDiagramProperties()
{
this.EnableStyledText = false;

/****************/
/* Routing */
/****************/
this.RoutingOptions.TriggerRerouting = RerouteLinks.WhileCreating;// | RerouteLinks.WhileModifying; //| RerouteLinks.WhenIntersectNode;
this.RoutingOptions.EndOrientation = MindFusion.Diagramming.Orientation.Horizontal;
this.RoutingOptions.StartOrientation = MindFusion.Diagramming.Orientation.Horizontal;
this.RoutingOptions.Anchoring = Anchoring.Reassign;

this.TableConnectionStyle = TableConnectionStyle.Rows;
this.RouteLinks = true;
this.ShadowsStyle = ShadowsStyle.ZOrder; //important for drawing the shadow in a 3D style
this.RestrictItemsToBounds = RestrictToBounds.InsideOnly;
this.AutoResize = AutoResize.AllDirections;

//this.EnableLanes = true; //-?

/*********/
/* Links */
/*********/
this.DynamicLinks = true;
this.LinkStyle = LinkStyle.Cascading;
this.LinkCrossings = LinkCrossings.Arcs;
this.LinkSegments = 3;
this.CrossingRadius = 90;
this.LinkCascadeOrientation = MindFusion.Diagramming.Orientation.Auto;
this.LinksRetainForm = false; // true
this.LinkEndsMovable = false;
this.LinksSnapToBorders = false;
this.RoundedLinks = true;
this.RoundedLinksRadius = 90;
this.LinkHandlesStyle = HandlesStyle.DashFrame;
this.SnapToAnchor = SnapToAnchor.OnCreateOrModify;

this.LinkHeadShapeSize = 3;
this.LinkHeadShape = ArrowHead.DefaultFlow;

this.LinkBaseShapeSize = 3;
this.LinkBaseShape = ArrowHead.RevWithLine;


/**************************/
/* Pens, Brushes, Colors */
/**************************/

this.BackBrush = new MFDrawing.SolidBrush(Color.White);

this.TextColor = Color.FromArgb(102, 102, 102);

this.ShadowColor = Color.FromArgb(188, 188, 188);

this.TableBrush = new MindFusion.Drawing.SolidBrush(Color.FromArgb(255, 255, 153));

this.TablePen = new MindFusion.Drawing.Pen(Color.FromArgb(235, 215, 113));

this.LinkBrush = new MindFusion.Drawing.SolidBrush(Color.FromArgb(205, 154, 52));

this.LinkPen = new MindFusion.Drawing.Pen(Color.FromArgb(205, 154, 52));

/**************************/
/* Tables and Appearance */
/**************************/

this.CellCustomDraw = CustomDraw.Full;

this.TableCustomDraw = CustomDraw.Full;

this.TableHandlesStyle = HandlesStyle.Custom;

this.CellFrameStyle = CellFrameStyle.Simple;

this.TableCaptionHeight = 7;

this.TableRowHeight = 6;

this.TableConnectionStyle = TableConnectionStyle.Rows;

this.TableStyle = TableStyle.Rectangle;
}

and the layout:

private void InitLayeredLayout()
{
LayeredLayout layeredLayout = new LayeredLayout();

layeredLayout.Anchoring = Anchoring.Reassign;
layeredLayout.NodeDistance = 20;
layeredLayout.LayerDistance = 30;
layeredLayout.SplitLayers = true;
layeredLayout.Orientation = MindFusion.Diagramming.Layout.Orientation.Horizontal;
layeredLayout.Direction = Direction.Straight;
layeredLayout.LinkType = LayeredLayoutLinkType.Cascading;
layeredLayout.IgnoreNodeSize = false; //important to avoid entitity tables overlapping
layeredLayout.StraightenLongLinks = true; //avoid the links overlapping


_layout = layeredLayout;
}

Thanks for the answer,

Yes indeed, playing with the ControlPoints property seems to resolve the problem, though your code is not quite useful because the first line save the points when the Style is Cascading and then restore the same points when the style became Polyline and the link can't be drawn using these points and the new style. (LayeredLayout uses Straight LinkType).

But anyways, starting from this ideea, I could get it working, if I could catch the event fired when the link is created and/or modified. In this event I would save the ControlPoints corresponding to the style used by the link. When the style is changed by the user, these ControlPoints are restored and saved for further use, something like:

foreach (VoxidaDiagramLink link in _ermDiagram.Links)
{
link.Style = linkStyle;
link.RestoreControlPoints();
link.SaveControlPoints();
}

where:

public void SaveControlPoints()
{
if (_previousControlPoints.ContainsKey(Style))
_previousControlPoints[Style] = ControlPoints.Clone();
else
_previousControlPoints.Add(Style, ControlPoints.Clone());
}

public void RestoreControlPoints()
{
if (_previousControlPoints.ContainsKey(Style))
{
ControlPoints.Clear();
ControlPoints.AddRange(_previousControlPoints[Style]);
UpdateFromPoints(false, true);
}
}

But I don't know how to catch the moment when the link is created and also when the link is modified (when the user uses the mouse to change the tables position, the links are also updated, so the ControlPoints too). The SaveControlPoints should be called in these moments. Can you help me on this one?

I've tried overwriting the CompleteCreate or CompleteModify DiagramItem methods but they are called only when the user explicitly create or modify a link, which is not my case. (in my case the links cannot by created/modified by the user)

Thanks,
Bogdan

Hi Stoyan,

LinkCreated and LinkModified do not fire when the diagram is relayout (on RefreshDiagramLayout() call). they fire only on user actions. Anyways, I save the control points in the RefreshDiagramLayout() method:

public void RefreshDiagramLayout()
{
_ermDiagram.RouteAllLinks();

_layout.Arrange(_ermDiagram);//, _ermDiagram.Items);

_ermDiagram.ResizeToFitItems(25, false);

foreach (VoxidaDiagramLink link in _ermDiagram.Links)
{
link.SaveControlPoints();
}
}

The NodeModified event is indeed fired when the Node is moved by the user and I can use it to get all links and save their control points.

But before continuing with my issue, I encounter the following problem (it is related with the LinkStyle changing and its important to solve it, in order to get going with ControlPoints save/restore ideea): If I press the "Polyline" button, the link shape changes ok to polyline, but when I start dragging a node, the link is drawn again as a Cascading style. And it remains drawn in Cascading style even when the node dragging is finished. I've checked in the NodeModifying and NodeModified events, the diagram and all link styles are set to Polyline, as expected. Yet, the link is drawn in cascading style when moving the node.

In the NodeModifying event I call the RouteAllLinks method, for correctly route the link when the nodes positions are changing:

void MyDiagram_NodeModifying(object sender, NodeValidationEventArgs e)
{
this.RouteAllLinks();
}

Can you please give me a hint on what am I doing wrong here?

Thanks,
Bogdan

I've changed the link router to GridRouter but same behavior: Although in the NodeModifying event, the Style of the link is Polyline (I'm using a simple test with 2 nodes and a single link), the LinkStyle of the diagram is also Polyline, the link is layout as a cascading link.

I've also, changed the implicit diagram style to Polyline, and the default LayeredLayout link type set to LayeredLayoutLinkType.Straight (so, no need to press any button to change the style) but the same behavior is present, if the nodes are moved, the link style changes to Cascading.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Bogdan

Hi Stoyan,

I'm sorry, it's my bad. Indeed, after changing the router to GridRouter, the links are routed as polylines. I was mislead by the fact that when changing the link style to polyline, the code (SetLinkStyle method) did not call the RouteAllLinks method, so the link(s) was/were firstly drawn as simply straight lines. And when I moved the node, the shape of the links changed because in the NodeModifying event, the RouteAllLinks is called. I fixed that by calling diagram.RouteAllLinks() right after changing the links style so no more straight line link shapes.

But again, this works only with GridRouter. The default QuickRouter do not route the links in polyline style.

My initial issue, was also resolved, by setting the diagram.LinkCascadeOrientation = Orientation.Horizontal.

Thanks for your help,
Bogdan