Lose "bump" in connection lines that cross

Paul wrote:
> I'm using center-to-center straight lines to connect shapes. Whenever
> lines cross, one of the lines has a "bump". I would like to lose this
> bump. Is there a way to do this in Visio 2000?

An archaism I find puzzling. As a student in the late 50s and early 60s we
were told that the line jumps were "out" and only used where necessary to
obviate confusion.

/rib-poking mode ON/
I put it in the same category as the US being the only major industrial
country in the world persisting with the weird, obfuscatatory, confusing,
idiotic and irrational Imperial system of measurement with its inch
thingies - even more puzzling giving that the US snatched their time from
the Empire 230 years ago.

(But of course the US attempts to rationalise it by calling the Imperial
system the "US" system - particularly since Britain has just about abandoned
it). ROFL

Paddy

But then Xerox machines came and obfuscerated the connection points.
So I red on this forum.

"Paddy" wrote:

> Paul wrote:
> > I'm using center-to-center straight lines to connect shapes. Whenever
> > lines cross, one of the lines has a "bump". I would like to lose this
> > bump. Is there a way to do this in Visio 2000?
>
> An archaism I find puzzling. As a student in the late 50s and early 60s we
> were told that the line jumps were "out" and only used where necessary to
> obviate confusion.
>
> /rib-poking mode ON/
> I put it in the same category as the US being the only major industrial
> country in the world persisting with the weird, obfuscatatory, confusing,
> idiotic and irrational Imperial system of measurement with its inch
> thingies - even more puzzling giving that the US snatched their time from
> the Empire 230 years ago.
>
> (But of course the US attempts to rationalise it by calling the Imperial
> system the "US" system - particularly since Britain has just about abandoned
> it). ROFL
>
> Paddy
>
>
>
>

On Jul 3, 6:15 pm, Paul Herber <SubstituteMyFirstNameH....RemoveThis@pherber.com>
wrote:
> On Thu, 3 Jul 2008 14:23:02 -0700 (PDT), Paul
>
> <Paul.Domas....RemoveThis@gmail.com> wrote:
> >I'm using center-to-center straight lines to connect shapes.  Whenever
> >lines cross, one of the lines has a "bump".  I would like to lose this
> >bump.  Is there a way to do this in Visio 2000?
>
> menu File -> Page Setup -> Layout and Routing tab
> and set the Line Jumps to None.

Thank you, Paul! My diagram is much improved. Very much improved.

The bumps are useful in schematics where the lines could join with
other lines. The bumps convey the fact that an intersection does not
represent a join. However, it is way too busy for dense diagrams.
The Bumps also work better when the lines are rectinlinear, and an
algorithm/heuristic automatically spaces lines and corners apart. In
a free-for-all, with straight center-to-center lines, there can be
some really messy parts with many intersections at many angles. The
bumps just cause confusion. They are also unnecessary when it is
already understood that no intersections represent logical joining of
lines.

Even in the case where bumps serve a useful purpose, a much cleaner
way to distinguish between intersections where lines logically join
versus those where they don't is to put a big dot where they join. A
"solder" dot, in the paradigm of electrical engineers. This is much
more in vogue these days (and has been for a while). Bumps are from
way back, before the better practice of dots came about. The only
problem is, inexperienced diagrammers don't often know about using
dots to distinguish between joining and nonjoining intersections.
This occurs in diagrams in the most technical of journals. Some leave
it up to context to determine whether intersections join i.e. the
reader has to guess.

Hmmm, wonder if Visio might provide the solder dot feature....

Quite true, at least after many successive copies. So, the solution was to
avoid "4-way" connections. Thus, lines that cross are by definition, not
connected. Only lines that terminate on lines are connected. So, the for a
crossing set of lines, that are connected, the dot is avoided by offsetting
one of the lines. Result: no dots and no jumps. However, I'm not aware of
any standard, e.g., IEEE, that defines this.

Wapperdude


"Philippe C." wrote:

> But then Xerox machines came and obfuscerated the connection points.
> So I red on this forum.
>
> "Paddy" wrote:
>
> > Paul wrote:
> > > I'm using center-to-center straight lines to connect shapes. Whenever
> > > lines cross, one of the lines has a "bump". I would like to lose this
> > > bump. Is there a way to do this in Visio 2000?
> >
> > An archaism I find puzzling. As a student in the late 50s and early 60s we
> > were told that the line jumps were "out" and only used where necessary to
> > obviate confusion.
> >
> > /rib-poking mode ON/
> > I put it in the same category as the US being the only major industrial
> > country in the world persisting with the weird, obfuscatatory, confusing,
> > idiotic and irrational Imperial system of measurement with its inch
> > thingies - even more puzzling giving that the US snatched their time from
> > the Empire 230 years ago.
> >
> > (But of course the US attempts to rationalise it by calling the Imperial
> > system the "US" system - particularly since Britain has just about abandoned
> > it). ROFL
> >
> > Paddy
> >
> >
> >
> >

On Fri, 4 Jul 2008 05:15:51 -0700 (PDT), Paul
<Paul.Domaskis.RemoveThis@gmail.com> wrote:
>Hmmm, wonder if Visio might provide the solder dot feature....

There are two such shapes in the Transmission Paths stencil (Visio
Pro) - Junction and Junction/crossing.




--
Regards, Paul Herber, Sandrila Ltd.
Electrical for Visio http://www.electrical.sandrila.co.uk/

Hi,

The solder dot feature can be obtained in this way:

1. Enable 'Snap to Geometry' feature, so you could extend a new connection
creating a T-joint onto an existing line.

2. Have a 'dotted line end' to the newly extended line, creating a 'solder
dot' exactly at the T-joint

PS. It is a good practice to have only one connection emerging out of a
T-joint. If you need 4 or more connections to a single point (eg: Star
ground), connected them in such a way that connections are close to each
other but still you've just three branches out of a single solder dot.

Hope it helps.
--
Thanks,
Vignesh


"Paul" wrote:

> On Jul 3, 6:15 pm, Paul Herber <SubstituteMyFirstNameH....RemoveThis@pherber.com>
> wrote:
> > On Thu, 3 Jul 2008 14:23:02 -0700 (PDT), Paul
> >
> > <Paul.Domas....RemoveThis@gmail.com> wrote:
> > >I'm using center-to-center straight lines to connect shapes. Whenever
> > >lines cross, one of the lines has a "bump". I would like to lose this
> > >bump. Is there a way to do this in Visio 2000?
> >
> > menu File -> Page Setup -> Layout and Routing tab
> > and set the Line Jumps to None.
>
> Thank you, Paul! My diagram is much improved. Very much improved.
>
> The bumps are useful in schematics where the lines could join with
> other lines. The bumps convey the fact that an intersection does not
> represent a join. However, it is way too busy for dense diagrams.
> The Bumps also work better when the lines are rectinlinear, and an
> algorithm/heuristic automatically spaces lines and corners apart. In
> a free-for-all, with straight center-to-center lines, there can be
> some really messy parts with many intersections at many angles. The
> bumps just cause confusion. They are also unnecessary when it is
> already understood that no intersections represent logical joining of
> lines.
>
> Even in the case where bumps serve a useful purpose, a much cleaner
> way to distinguish between intersections where lines logically join
> versus those where they don't is to put a big dot where they join. A
> "solder" dot, in the paradigm of electrical engineers. This is much
> more in vogue these days (and has been for a while). Bumps are from
> way back, before the better practice of dots came about. The only
> problem is, inexperienced diagrammers don't often know about using
> dots to distinguish between joining and nonjoining intersections.
> This occurs in diagrams in the most technical of journals. Some leave
> it up to context to determine whether intersections join i.e. the
> reader has to guess.
>
> Hmmm, wonder if Visio might provide the solder dot feature....
>