Demonstrating the use of Dia
Submitted by Mick Curtis
Assigned to Lars Clausen
Link to original bug (#347309)
Description
Hello, I wrote some notes which make sense to me at least. They describe how to build a small basic flowchart...... It might 'bring together' many of the basic ideas of the documentation. You do show a small flowchart diagram already in your Help but this explanation explores the most basic steps for doing something like that. Maybe it could be edited into a Help article.
Making a simple Flowchart
Note: If at any time, an object disappears or partially disappears then try View..Redraw . Otherwise, if you have removed an object, use Edit..Undo to bring it back.
I want to have an ellipse and I want to contain text inside it. So I put an ellipse on the canvas and then I put a text object on the canvas and start typing a caption; then I drag the text into the centre of the ellipse. I turn off 'snap to grid' so that the text will align just where I want it.
Now, I want the ability to drag the ellipse and the text as if they are one object; but at the moment, if I drag one, the other object does not drag as well. So, I select both objects and, at the menu, do Objects..Group. Now they will drag together as if they are one single item. [Side Note: 'Ungroup' would undo the grouping of selected items.]
I create another ellipse and caption in a similar way. I put a line object between them (its properties make it looks like an arrow). Now I drag the first ellipse but the arrow does not travel with it: the arrow is not glued to the ellipse and so the arrow relationship breaks. So I need to connect each end of the arrow to each of my ellipses. I do this by right-clicking the line and clicking 'Add Connection Point'. Now, if I drag the arrow as far as ellipse 1, a red color indicates that they have glued together; and if I drag the other end of the arrow to ellipse 2, again, a red color shows that they have glued together; so now I can move an ellipse and its arrow line travels with it. Note: All of this assumes that all of these objects occur in the same layer. Note: You can also use image objects and browse to a bitmap that suits your theme; then you can use images as well as basic box/ellipse shapes. In fact, I saved some clipart as a bitmap and then I was able to use it within a diagram that I was making.
Regards,
Michael Curtis mick_curtis@yahoo.co.uk
Version: 0.95.1