Greetings, Marshall Feldman! >>> I'm new to Dia and have found it very useful. But I'm having one problem. I >>> want to draw an arc that starts and ends at the same node. I tried using the >> You can do it if you connect it to something else. Example take a box >> and you can illustrate a loop connecting an arc for example from the >> right side of the rectangle to the top. > Thanks. I managed to draw an arc from the top of a rectangle to its > side. So, by "something else" you don't just mean another object. > Different sides of a polygon count as "somethings else." Is this > behavior documented anywhere? Exactly what counts as (i.e., what is the > technical definition of) "something else."
Each separate connection point counts as "something else". I.e. you may connect a line from one side of the rectangle to another, but you can't connect a line from THE rectangle (means, the default connection point, that many shapes have, which is located (usually) somewhere around the center of a shape) back to itself. >>> curved line connector and can almost make it into a circle, but when the end >>> of the line gets close to the original box, it seems to collapse on itself, >>> so instead of a circular flow it just looks garbled. >>> >> Weird. It works for me. Please specify your version and OS. Also >> specify if you are using the arc primitive or an arc provided by a >> symbol sheet. > I'm using Dia 0.97.2 on a Mac running OS X 10.7.5. > I don't know what you mean by "arc primitive" or "symbol sheet." The Dia > Manual > <http://dia-installer.de/doc/en/quickstart-chapter.html#making-diagram> > refers to a "Toolbox." I'm using the Toolbox items for flowcharts. In > particular, mainly rectangles and parallelograms. To connect the shapes, > I'm using straight lines and curved arcs. The "toolbox" is a collection of Dia built-in primitives and tools. The selection arrow, text input mode, zoom tool, move tool, and an assortment of very basic shapes that almost never used. Everything below it is a custom-made shapes from collections that either coming with Dia or installed by user, but they are ... "not as primitive". > Funny, when I made a simple diagram consisting of just a rectangle and a > circular arc, everything worked fine for me. First I drew the arc from > the top of the rectangle to its right side. Then I moved the arc by > moving the tip (arrowhead) of the arc to the top side of the rectangle. If that's really what you want to do... Sounds very confusing, much like the arrow doesn't really tell anything and just hang outside the shape. > Finally, I made the arc more circular by moving its origin (the original > end of the arc, i.e. the one without an arrowhead) to the top line of > the rectangle. > I ran into trouble when I had a more complex, busy diagram and just > tried to add a circular arc to a rectangle. For your specific case, I would recommend using Besier curve. Should both let you snap it as much as you like, and control it's width and height separately. >>> In case you're wondering why I want this, think of a bank ledger for a >>> mortgage. Every month, the bank adds interest due to the balance of the >>> mortgage. If there's mortgage payment (a separate flow transaction), the >>> balance is reduced. But the original ledger entry starts and ends with the >>> bank. >>> >> I understand you want an arc to illustrate something looping into >> itself. is this a flowchart that you are trying to do, is it some >> specific notation? Can you provide an example on the Web on what you >> are trying to accomplish? >> > No, it's not exactly a flowchart. If you want to see an example, look at > Figure 9.3 on p. 175 of this paper > <http://www.debtdeflation.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/papers/9780230_203372_10_cha09.pdf>. :D I like overcomplication of very simple things. Thanks for a good laugh. > This is a monetary flow diagram designed to show money flows in an > economy. To visualize an example, think of an economy consisting of two > sectors, one producing consumer goods and one producing capital goods. > The consumer goods sector buys capital goods from the capital goods > sector, so money flows from the former to the latter. On the other hand, > the capital goods sector buys capital goods from itself. So a portion of > the money it receives circulates within the sector, or in other words, > goes from the capital goods sector to itself. Besides showing flows > between economic entities, I want to show flows within individual > entities, such as those within the capital goods sector. -- WBR, Andrey Repin (anrdae...@freemail.ru) 25.04.2013, <02:19> Sorry for my terrible english... _______________________________________________ dia-list mailing list dia-list@gnome.org https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/dia-list FAQ at http://live.gnome.org/Dia/Faq Main page at http://live.gnome.org/Dia
