Clever Geek Handbook

Boxes connected by "smart lines" - what is it called? How it's done?

Terminological question!

In many graphics packages, the user can draw a line between two objects (say two boxes) and then when the user moves one of those boxes, the line moves to keep the (visual) connection in place.

I want to know more about this functionality that could be implemented (very helpful to find some open source code to read).

So, I want to find some terminology for what is called this type of thing. I saw a link on stackoverflow for "wiring based drawing", but it seems to have been an invention of the author and not a commonly used term.

Is there a suitable term for this area of ​​graphics software technology? Any open source libraries that implement it?

thank

+2


source to share


3 answers


I believe the most common name is "connectors". You can draw them using the pathfinding algorithm (depends on how your objects are represented)



Here's an example of a constructor that implements what you described.

+4


source


Diagrams - block, block diagram, etc. This type of drawing is usually created using software such as Visio and Dia .



Btw, Dia is open source, so you can see how it is implemented.

+1


source


These are connectors.

OpenOffice.org implements them. This functionality is available in Writer, Draw, and Impress (Connectors menu on the Drawing toolbar). However, I have no idea how easy it would be to dig up this function from the source code. However, OpenOffice.org is open source.

0


source






More articles:


All Articles