Re: Proportional line width, precise anchor points

Hi Sean,

I took a stab at creating a diagram like that in OmniGraffle, and  
ended up with a couple of ideas. Take a look at this document:

http://jetfuel.metalbat.com/blah/Quantity%20lines.graffle.zip

The idea is to make a table whose cells are the heights of the lines  
you want coming in to the object, and hide that table behind the  
object. Whenever you adjust a line's thickness, also adjust the height  
of the table cell it connects to. It's a little bit of work, but it  
should keep your lines properly spaced.

Note that if the connected point is the starting (red) point of the  
line, you can hold Shift while moving the next point to make sure it  
creates a perfectly horizontal angle. Then you can hit the Reverse  
button in the Lines and Shapes inspector to flip the points and do the  
other side. It's kind of hard to explain, but I hope you get what I  
mean.

I hope that is helpful to you!

William Van Hecke
~User Experience Lead~
The Omni Group



On Aug 4, 2009, at 14:02, Sean Ahern wrote:

> I would like to reproduce this graph (or something like it) in  
> OmniGraffle:
>
> http://www.scientificcomputing.com/uploadedImages/Images/0907/sc090727h_lg%282%29.jpg
>
> I'm not sure I can.  The biggest problem has to do with the  
> proportional spacing of the lines and how they attach to the boxes.   
> While I have manually entered the lines thickness, I don't see any  
> way to get them to attach to their end boxes so that their  
> thicknesses is taken in account with their attachment.
>
> For example, look at the "Coal" box on the left.  There is a fat  
> line going to "Electricity Generation" and a thin line going to  
> "Industrial".  Those two lines should be spaced on the "Coal" box so  
> that the little line attaches under the big line.
>
> Anchors would be a way to do this, but I don't see an method other  
> than manually clicking the box to attach a magnet.  That's imprecise  
> and would be a real headache when trying to do the "Electricity  
> Generation" box, for instance.
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> -Sean
>
> __
> Sean Ahern
> Oak Ridge National Laboratory
> 865-241-3748
> AIM: ornlsean
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