Re: Custom shape problem

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

On Tue, 8 Mar 2005, Michael Ross wrote:

> Date: Tue, 8 Mar 2005 09:05:22 -0500
> From: Michael Ross <michael e ross gmail com>
> To: discussions about usage and development of dia <dia-list gnome org>
> Subject: Re: Custom shape problem
>
> Hear, hear.  Lots of bad juju with custom shapes.


> No documentation on  do's and don't's.

Thank you for volunteering to improve our documentation.  :)

http://www.gnome.org/projects/dia/custom-shapes

> No spec of proper form.

The DTD although a little out of date is available in CVS.

> No tutorial.

Draw something.  Save as .shape.
Open Sheets and Objects Dialog,
choose New and browse for the .shape file.
Hit OK.  Hit apply.  Hit Close.
Switch to your sheet

(you might need to switch away from the current
sheet and then switch back as Dia is failing to update the sheet straight
away).

> You must try to infer from other shape files, but little joy arises.

It was time consuming and a little tedious but I think you are making it
out to be more difficult than it actually is.  I'm well aware there is
room for improvement though.

> I, like you, got errors not referring to anything that sounded like
> shapes.

Ask questions!  We will try our best to answer them.
If I'm feeling really generous I might even help draw the shapes for you.

Dia is only as good as we make it.  If there is something you want to see
improved you cannot count on anyone else to improve it.  Despite my
limited programming ability I struggle along and help out as best I can,
answering questions, adding shapes, making small changes to the code and
documentation.  There is so much to do it is probably easier than you
think to help out even by doing something very small.

> All this doom and gloom aside, it is quite possible to make a shape
> with Dia and convert it  into a shape and get it to appear in the
> menus.  And If you live with the shapes already provided, Dia is
> peachy.

Glad you like it.  The preset shapes are what really make Dia so much
better than the average drawing program.

> The trouble comes when you try and get the shape file to look clean.
> As in no extra connection points (where do they all come from?), how
> to create locate and control a text box.  How to get the shape into a
> diagram with a predicatable size.  And so on.

One of the tricks I've used for connection points is to put lines of a
different colour intersecting (forming an x or +) so that when I look at
the shape file I can relatively easily delete the extra lines and I'll
know which points are important because they will have twice as many
connection points on them.

> Sorry to only commiserate, and to not offer help.

It is never too late, you can help out too.

Sincerely

Alan Horkan

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