Drawing Lines

This page shows you basic operations about drawing lines.

1. Hover a mouse over an object.
2. Some small icon appears (called Draw Suggest), choose a line type you want to draw.
3. Click a target object.
   

If you’d like to cancel drawing a line, hit the [ESC] key or right-click.

Line Style

There are 4 line styles.

1. Line (Straight line)

This is a basic straight line.

2. Line (Right Angle)

This is a line that has the right angle(s) in it.

3. Curve

This is a curvy line, not a straight one.

4. Curve (Right Angle)

This is a curvy line but has right angles in it.

Default Line Style

By default, Data Flow Diagram uses “Curve”, ER Diagram uses “Line (Right Angle)” and the rest use “Line” style as default.
If you’d like to change the line style, you can do so by switching the line style on the diagram tool bar.

Change Line Style

If you want to change the existing line style, right-click on the line and click the line style you want it to change to.

Line Jumps

Line jumps are available in v8.2 and later. Line jumps are currently supported for Line and Line (Right Angle) styles only.

Change Line Jump Style

You can switch the line jump style from [Tools] – [System Properties] – [Diagram Editor] – [Style].

Switch on/off the Line jump

If you want to turn off the line jumps, go to [Tools] – [System Properties] – [Diagram Editor] and tick off the [Jump at line intersection (Only Line and Right Angle Line].) and click [Apply] – [OK].

Turn off/on the line jump per diagram

If you want to turn off the line jump expression per diagram, right-click on a diagram and choose “Line jump”.

Turn off/on the line jump per line

If you want to turn off the line jump expression per line, right-click on the line and choose “Line jump” from its pop-up menu.

Moving connecting point

When you draw lines between objects. The line’s touchpoint is always at the center of the object by default.

If you’d like to connect off-center, turn off the following button on a diagram’s toolbar to unlock the “dock at the center”.

Now you can move around the connecting point.

Jump to the connecting model elements

Since version 8.5, you can jump to the connecting model elements.

1. Right-click on a line element and select [Move to related element].
2. Select the one you want to move to.
   

Shared Style

There are two ways to represent multiple generalization lines in this style.

Option 1 – From [Edit] menu

Select all the Generalization lines you want to bundle, then go to [Edit] – [Shared Style] – [Vertical].

Option 2 – Move over the arrow to the existing Generalization line

When you create another generalization line, drop the target end on the arrow of the already created generalization.