Overlapping lines appearing thicker

[John Oram]

Karl-

Hear hear!  Tolstoy would be proud.

I have battled even line spacing for several years now. I had 
proposed a "conduit" a while back, but your "cable tie" tag has a 
better ring to it.  The UI issues are tricky though.  I had 
envisioned a special shape (essentially a rectangle, but with two 
ends cut out -- think a cross section of a pipe) that you could drop 
lines into and drag them out of, though you'd probably need a 
group/ungroup analogue in there somehow.

You could drag it about and the lines would route accordingly, but 
still be bounded and spaced according to the size of the 
conduit/cable tie.  You could make the conduit/cable tie itself 
visible or invisible, maybe with an tag similar to the action icon. 
It wouldn't behave all that differently from a normal shape except 
that it has some intelligence and can influence lines.

I've sketched up a couple of ideas at
http://oram.com/omni/cable_tie.graffle
and
http://oram.com/omni/cable_tie.png

As for your other comments, magnet snap to grid would also be hugely 
helpful.  (So would line magnets, but that's a different discussion.) 
Arrow nudging magnets would also be great.

For reference, below is a list of feature requests from two years 
ago...  We're slowly getting there. :)


-John

>Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2002 13:28:39 -0800
>To: omnigraffle-users at omnigroup.com
>From: John Oram <john at oram.com>
>Subject: enhanced line and magnet behaviour
>
>Howard and I were talking about some enhanced magnet and line 
>behaviour we'd like to see.   I'd thought I'd summarize it and some 
>of the related traffic (From Warren, Jesse and others) we've been 
>seeing this week.  I'll integrate these into the list I posted 
>previously at http://oram.com/omni
>
>These really come down to the need to have much tighter control over 
>line placement.
>
>- finer magnet control
>	- zoom in magnet pane
>	- nudge magnets within drawing area
>	- snap magnets to grid
>	- enhanced audio/visual feedback
>		- halos
>		- click (on discovery)
>		- snap (on attach)
>	- allow shapes to snap together
>
>- enhanced line tools
>	- line snaps at sub-multiples of 90 degrees
>	- conduits
>		- shapes that control the flow of lines
>		- drop lines into the conduit
>		- when conduit moved lines move but maintain
>		  relationship to each other within conduit)
>			- e.g. I have two shapes connected, but I
>			  need the connecting lines to bypass objects
>			  along the way, yet still remain
>	- multi-line
>		- line type with 'n' parallel lines that maintain
>		  relationship to one another when attached to shapes
>	- inter line alignment
>		- ability to align lines like we can with shapes?
>		- set line angles relative to one another
>	- optional line jumps (a la visio)