Snap to connector doesn't seem to work on symbols

Generated with the symbol wizard any suggestions?

Lee

Hi Lee,

There's a simple solution to this: drag the new symbol into the Library List under the 'My Libraries' root (we assume you'd want to do this anyway so that you can use your new symbol in future drawings).  For consistency you'll probably want to put it in a folder under Blocks | [ManufacturerName] | etc.

When you drag your symbol out of the Library List into the drawing the 'connector' objects are added on the fly, and Cables and Doglegs will attach to the symbol and stay connected if you move it.

I hope this is helpful.

All the best

Rob

Yes thanks for reply that helps.

TX Lee

Hello

sometimes when I draw a dogleg to a symbol then move the symbol, the dogleg does'nt stay attached to symbol: sometimes it's only the output side that stay attached, sometimes some on both O/P and I/P does'nt stay neither....

And I have always the "snap to connector " on....

Geneviève

Hi Genevieve,

There are 2 things to remember to ensure that Doglegs remain connected:

1) The symbol must have come from the Library List

2) The Dogleg must be drawn to the point where the input or output stub meets the red rectangle, as shown below

I hope this is helpful

Kind regards

Rob

Hello again...

thanks for the reply but this is exactly what I am doing....

I have notice that I have problems with generic symbol and symbol from "my librairy"

????

Thank you

Geneviève

Hi Genevieve,

Please email a drawing that exhibits the problem to techsupport@stardraw.com - we will then be able to understand the nature of the problem.  Thanks.

Kind regards

Rob 

Hi everybody,

I have exactly the same problem. Sometimes it snaps to a connector, sometimes not. And I do everything as it is suggested.

Sometimes a dogleg snaps to somewhere inside a symbol - even beside the grid - when I want it to snap on a connector.

The connector concept is anyway extremely confusing in Stardraw. It isn't explained what a connector at all is, how is it defined? I have been looking through all help resources, not even the word is in the index. I would have thought it is a special object I could insert in symbols but it is obviously just a line or what?

And why do only doglegs snap to connectors in a way that when I move the object the dogleg stretches itself and stays connected? Why do cables not behave like that? How shall I make a complex interconnection and then move an object with 100 connections or so? It would be much more logic if especially cables would do the same, doglegs are much too poor as a tool for large drawings I think.

And also there should be a visual control over where a connection point is (however Stardraw defines that) and I should be able to see if a dogleg has snapped to a connector or not. The only way to check it is obviously to connect and then move the object. If you are lucky the dogleg will follow. If you just made 150 connections you may have bad luck.

I'd really appreciate a comment on this or a hint where possibly a more deep explanantion can be found. I am just busy waisting hours of lifetime.

HK / Yamaha

We'd be very interested in seeing the anomalous connector behaviour you've described, particularly snapping inside the symbol.  Can you email a drawing that shows the problem to techsupport@stardraw.com? Thanks.

Connectors are indeed special objects - they are created on-the-fly when a symbol is inserted into a document.  Connectors are created at the point where a cyan I/O stub meets the red rectangle that is the symbol's outline.  Connectors cannot be created, edited or deleted manually.

Cables and Doglegs behave the way they do (differently) by design.  The Dogleg has a relatively simple set of circumstances in which it can be used, so the way it resizes makes sense, for a Dogleg.  A Cable, by contrast, has infinitely varied uses and configurations, so no pseudo-intelligent behaviour could realistically cater for all eventualities.  Consequently, only the last node on the Cable moves when a symbol it's connected to is moved.  It is intended that other nodes on the Cable can be moved, if they need to be, using the Edit Node cursor.  Having said this, we are looking at ways to enhance the behaviour of interconnections - suggestions are welcomed.  We agree that visual cues indicating connection status would be advantageous.

I hope this is helpful - please feel free to post further comments or suggestions to this thread.

Rob

Hi Rob,

well, this is at least an explanation how these connectors are generated, thanks. Why isn't it explained in the help files and tutorials?

I imagine there can be a lot of traps in this. If e.g. the 'connector' line doesn't cross or touch the outline, what will happen? This can easily be the case if nudge settings have been slightly wrong which is the case for many, many symbol files! By the way: Even the original Stardraw block symbol template has a grid setting of 2.5mm but a nudge setting of 2.54mm. It is very easy to make a lot of useless symbol files with this template. I got a bit mad until I found out.

However I will check my symbols for this kind of stuff and try to find out if the problems are somehow related to such issues.

I will mail you a symbol file which doesn't work. For most connectors the snap will snap inside the outline right beside a text like this:

Please try it! It depends a bit on the zoom factor but at 1:1 it already behaves like that, smaller will make it worse.

I would urgently recommend to make this 'connector creating' by the software somehow transparent to the user. It would be much easier if there was a clearly defined connector object one could insert and see. Make for example an option to show all valid connections by a kind of symbol (a cross or something similar). I am sure everybody would use that option while drawing cables and doglegs.

A huge benefit of connector objects would be that even if symbols are deleted and others inserted but with their connectors on exactly the same connector positions it could be reconned as a connection. I don't know if this should already work in current Stardraw version, at least I can't make it work like that.

Another thing: There is a tool which is really missing in Stardraw. It is about stretching objects. I know this from AutoCad but you can find it in any standard CAD software and it is very difficult to live without it once being used to it. You select an area and it will mark all nodes of objects within that area. Then when moving the area all nodes within the selected area are moved but the objects keep their structure. So objects that exceed the selected area are stretched or compressed, depending on direction of movement. This is extremly useful for to edit larger bundles of wires, cables or doglegs at once. As far as I can see does Stardraw only allow to edit the entire object or one node at a time. For a lot of objects this is too time consuming. With Stardraw it happens quite often that something in a larger context of a drawing has to be moved and you find yourself endlesly moving singular nodes around.

Please reply, I will track answers and comments,

Henning / Yamaha