Using Omnigraffle

[Greg Titus]

Hi Howard,

On Monday, December 17, 2001, at 08:20  AM, Howard Kaufman wrote:
> I am considering buying Omnigraffle for my work which consists of 
> drawing simple block diagrams and electronic schematics.  (I stress the 
> word simple)
> .  One problem I have is that where lines intersect I sometimes need to 
> place a small black dot.  (This indicates that there is an electrical 
> connection between the 2 lines.  If the lines cross without the dot 
> then it usually means the lines are just crossing on the page, but not 
> electrically connected).  The problem is that the lines are drawn to 
> the grid but when I create a small circle (about 1/4 the size of a grid 
> box) I cannot place it so that the center of the dot sits exactly at 
> the intersection of the lines (which is the same thing as the 
> intersection of the grid lines).  Any ideas as to how to do this, other 
> than turning off snap to grid and nudging?
>   BTW, nudging may not help, because it is not fine enough, I have 
> found.

Well, the existing Graffle way to do this would be to make four 'wire' 
segments instead of two. Make your black dot first, then draw lines from 
their origin to the dot, then from the dot to the destination. The way 
you are doing things now, your dot isn't actually connected to anything 
so if you move either end of the connection and thus the 'wires' move, 
the crossing point will change, but the dot will still be in the old 
location.

The disadvantage of doing things the way I'm suggesting is that the line 
isn't necessarily going to be straight any more, since the two segments 
can go in different directions. I don't know if that is an issue for you 
or not.

It does seem like it would be kind of a cool feature to select a couple 
lines and have some kind of tool for 'insert a shape where these lines 
intersect' that would automatically split the lines in two and reconnect 
them to the new shape....

	--Greg