some routing issues

Hello,

I have some problems for auto-routing.

1. Please see picture1, the connection lines are overlapped, is it possible to make them positioned side by side like picture2?

2. For some crossed line, is it possible to be shown like picture3?

3. If I change the size of one node programmatically (change the size bigger), if there are some node around it, the node will overlap the nodes around it, and some lines are also overlapped. For example, please see picture4, at the beginning, the layout of the node is quite well, if I expand the centeral group node (the size become bigger), the result is in picture5, the group node overlap some nodes around it and the connection line, is it possible to change the position of the nodes around the group node automatically, and rerounte the connection?

Thanks

Hello Jzhou

1. This is possible, but only if you are using the AStarPathfinder. To use this feature, create a new AStarPathfinder instance and pass in a number into the constructor. This number is the desired distance you want between adjacent connections. Then let your connections use this pathfinder. Note that this feature can drop the performance of the path routing algorithm if there are many connections.

2. This feature is not currently available, but it is on our backlog.

3. This is very application specific, so this will not be built into the WPF Diagrams framework. You can achieve this effect by programatically changing the positions of the nodes. You do this by setting the Bounds property.

Jason Fauchelle

Hello,

Thanks for your reply.

For point 2, do you know when this feature is available.

For point 3, I can change the positions of the nodes, but for some connections crossed with the node, my idea is to delete those connections and reconnect it, so is there a way I check if one node is crossed by a connection?

Thanks

Hello Jzhou

For point 2, this may be released some time next year. First we are working on improving the performance throughout the library. This perf upgrade is expected to be released this year. After that, we will be able to add the intersections feature.

To find out if a node is being crossed by a connection, you will need to iterate all connections in a diagram and test if one of the segments intersect the node. You can iterate the connections through the IDiagramModel.Connections property. For each connection, you can iterate the segments using the IDiagramConnection.Segments property. Note: With the up-coming perf improvements, we may be able to provide some helper methods to make this easier for you.

Jason Fauchelle

Hello Jzhou

We have just released WPF Diagrams 3.0 which includes the performance improvements and the connection bridges feature. Here is a blog post with more information about the release including a quick tutorial of how to display connection bridges: http://www.mindscapehq.com/blog/index.php/2012/12/12/just-released-wpf-diagrams-3-0/

As you currently have an active subsription, you can upgrade to 3.0 for free by going to your account page: http://www.mindscapehq.com/store/myaccount

A full example of the connection bridges feature is availble in the SampleExplorer app as well as the Samples VS solution that ships with the product.

As for detecting node-to-connection intersections, the DiagramSurface in 3.0 has a GetConnections method where you can pass in a Rect such as the bounds of a node to quickly get all the intersecting connections.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Jason Fauchelle

Hello Jason,

Thanks for your upgrade. but I met some problem for upgrade. please see the error image. The system cannot load the assembly, I copy a .licx file of one sample to my project, the same problem still exist. And there are some properties of DiagramSurface cannot be found.

Thanks

Hello Jzhou

This error is caused because the licx file is referencing an assembly that does not exist. In your case it is referencing version 2 which has now been replaced with 3.0. Which sample did you copy the licx file from? It is strange that it still references version 2.0. To resolve this, you could either manually edit the licx file (simply change the Version number to 3.0.0.0), or copy the licx file from the installed ConnectionBridges project which is guaranteed to have the correct licx file. Also, if you have multiple projects, make sure all of them have the correct licx file.

As for the missing properties, there have been some small changes to the API as mentioned in the blog post and in the "Release Notes" section of the help docs. from what I can see from the image you posted, you can remove the ShowConnectionPoints property from all DiagramSurface instances. The default behavior of this is True, so you don't need to set it any more. If you want it to be "False", you can either use one of the read-only related properties, or style the connections points to be invisible. To work around CanShowScrollBars, use the VerticalScrollBarVisibility and HorizontalScrollBarVisibility properties instead.

Jason Fauchelle