Rotating icons

[gadzet21]

Hey,
Is it possible to rotate the icons?

Pozdrawiam
Gadzet21

[Howie]

Not currently. What's your use-case? And do you mean by a few degrees or 90/180?

[camerabob]

I believe the OP means taking a single icon and 'spinning' it x degrees.

[Howie]

I believe the OP means taking a single icon and 'spinning' it x degrees.

I understood the word 'rotate'

But 90 degree increments look nicer, and are potentially easier. Rotating a bitmap by 3 degrees usually looks pretty crappy, especially without antialiasing.

And I'm still curious why - are they expecting it to rotate based on a value? or something else (e.g. just saving on having an up and down arrow)?

[gadzet21]

Yes - exactly
Due to the increase in "links", I would like it to be more readable and apply arrows (in different colors) in the right direction.

[Howie]

Yes - exactly
Due to the increase in "links", I would like it to be more readable and apply arrows (in different colors) in the right direction.

But the questions:

1) At any angle? (sounds like yes)

2) Varying based on current data?

If you are literally talking about arrows, you can probably achieve it right now with oneway links.

[camerabob]

I believe the OP means taking a single icon and 'spinning' it x degrees.

I understood the word 'rotate'

Sorry, but it may have been ambiguous with rotating between a number of images.

But 90 degree increments look nicer, and are potentially easier. Rotating a bitmap by 3 degrees usually looks pretty crappy, especially without antialiasing.

Crappy is an understatement

[gadzet21]

If you are literally talking about arrows, you can probably achieve it right now with oneway links

Goog idea.

I used:

Code: Select all

NODE ...
	LABELOUTLINECOLOR none
	ICON 10 10 images/ball-green.png
	LABELOFFSET -5 -5
LINK ...
	ARROWSTYLE classic
	LINKSTYLE oneway

And it does not look bad.
This solution is OK - thank you for the hint.

[Howie]

So two other things that you may not know:

1) You can use angled links instead of curved ones, so that they turn sharply (at 90 degrees if you place the VIA well)

2) You can adjust where the ends of the link start, relative to the node:

Code: Select all

LINK link1
    NODES bignode:10:10 smallnode
    VIASTYLE angled
    LINKSTYLE oneway
    VIA 300 4000

So that the end at the bigger node starts 10 pixels to the left, and 10 down from the centre of the node. With a bit of basic maths, you can make a series of parallel links coming from the side of the node this way.

Here's a quick demo of that:

Code: Select all

WIDTH 300
HEIGHT 300


LINK DEFAULT
   WIDTH 3
   VIASTYLE angled
   LINKSTYLE oneway
   BWFONT 1

NODE big
   POSITION 100 200
   ICON images/WorkgroupSwitch.png

NODE small1
   POSITION 200 100
   ICON 16 16 images/green-ball-64.png


NODE small2
   POSITION 220 100
   ICON 16 16 images/green-ball-64.png


NODE small3
   POSITION 240 100
   ICON 16 16 images/green-ball-64.png


NODE small4
   POSITION 260 100
   ICON 16 16 images/green-ball-64.png

LINK l1
   NODES big:40:-20 small1
   VIA 200 180
   # via X matches small1's X
   # via Y matches big's X + the Y offset of -20

LINK l2
   NODES big:40:-10 small2
   VIA 220 190

LINK l3
   NODES big:40:10 small3
   VIA 240 210

LINK l4
   NODES big:40:20 small4
   VIA 260 220

[netniV]

I am so going to be tapping into your expertise once the 1.x version is ready

[gadzet21]

Thanks Howie.
Through the last dynamic changes on the map, there was no time to do it. I will try to use your tips soon.

It is a pity that these functions are not available in the editor itself (but manually entered) - it would speed up the work.

[Howie]

Thanks Howie.
Through the last dynamic changes on the map, there was no time to do it. I will try to use your tips soon.

It is a pity that these functions are not available in the editor itself (but manually entered) - it would speed up the work.

They are. Just click on a link, and then the Edit button.

It wouldn't be very hard to make a "make this a right-angled VIA" button actually, a bit like the existing Tidy option.