Any interest in Xara adding "connectors" ?

Hello

I'm just clocking in here to see if there has been any interest in the Xara universe in Xara adding connectors onto shapes. I am still looking for a decent flow diagramming / BPMN tool, and it occurs to me that it's the sort of thing that could be quiet easily bolted onto the core Xara engine, and for those of use who know our way around Xara it would be really powerful to be able to create really good looking flow diagrams.

They's need to sort out how lines with arrow heads terminate though!


J

As someone who would like to see an alternative to Visio, yes, absolutely I would be interested in this.

-- Ben

it occurs to me that it's the sort of thing that could be quiet easily bolted onto the core Xara engine

That's often the view of management about tasks they can't do but would like done!

It would be a great thing to do, but not necessarily simple.

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Originally Posted by shiphen

Hello
I'm just clocking in here to see if there has been any interest in the Xara universe in Xara adding connectors onto shapes. I am still looking for a decent flow diagramming / BPMN tool, and it occurs to me that it's the sort of thing that could be quiet easily bolted onto the core Xara engine, and for those of use who know our way around Xara it would be really powerful to be able to create really good looking flow diagrams.
They's need to sort out how lines with arrow heads terminate though!
J

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This has been asked for on several occasions, but no hint of anything coming through,
Acorn

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Originally Posted by pauland

it occurs to me that it's the sort of thing that could be quiet easily bolted onto the core Xara engine

That's often the view of management about tasks they can't do but would like done!

It would be a great thing to do, but not necessarily simple.

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True... But that sort of response is quite often the view of techies who would rather play with some new technical toys and/or technical theories, AND/OR other managers that are determined to justify some recent developments, but who haven't talked to a wide variety of users lately. :)

I used to write CAD software for the design of electronic chips ( the things that sit on circuit boards ).

I used to write software that did things like analysing the connections between transistors within the chip. Fun stuff.

Engineers used to come to me saying they had problem X and could I solve this problem using software or alert them when some particular problem might occur. It was an easy problem for them to describe so they assumed that software could be easily written to help them.

Most of the time we could help. Other times we had to explain that the simple problem they described would be fiendishly difficult for software to diagnose.

The other side of the coin is that I would go and see them and they would be scratching their head because of some issue. They tell me about it and I'd ask why they hadn't come to me earlier because I could easily solve their problem. They hadn't come to me because they thought the problem was so difficult that I couldn't possibly help.

As a programmer I love solving problems. Most of us do. I would love to write the connector software for connected diagrams like Visio. The concept may be easy but in practice it's a bit more complicated.

I'm sure Xara's tech developers would love to write that software, but it's more about management balancing priorities ( available manpower, money and user demands ) to make the software profitable.

Connected diagrams are a niche use, so I can understand why Xara might not see that as a priority over other features.

Don't ever say we never gave you anything.

Duplicate and use as necessary.

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Originally Posted by gwpriester

Don't ever say we never gave you anything.

Duplicate and use as necessary.

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Thanks however now I'm confused.

A) Various errors came up when I opened with my Xara Designer Pro X10
> This file was produced by a different or newer version of the program. It contains some data that will be ignored.
> Technical details; (4531); (4536); (4525); (4537); (4535); (4522); (4527); (4522); (4527); (4522); (4527); (4522); (4527)

B) So I downloaded and installed a trial of XDP 11X
But now when I go in, I see a window snapshot of something called Design elements (whatever that is)... on an Apple interface (strange, I didnt think Xara worked on Apple)... Ok but yes there are some useful flow diagram shapes in magenta. I guess that's it yes?

OK but what there isn't is any way of doing connectors. i.e. as soon as you move a shape relative to another shape the connecting line (AKA "edge") will need to be moved too, yes?

The error just says the document was created in a newer version but will open OK on 10.

I created the forms using the screen shot which I included for reference but the screen shot can be deleted and has nothing to do with Xara.

I would enable snap to grid and place the shapes where needed, then use the straight line tool to connect the shapes.

I attached another document with just the shapes, filled in and no screen shot.

It will open fine in older versions. Just ignore the warning.

@Gary P, the OP and I want dynamic connectors as per Gliffy (https://www.gliffy.com/home/) or MS Visio or any number of web applications.

Acorn