[Partial]

Anyone ever use this piece of software? Supposedly it is awesome, but I have done nothing but fight with it all night.

Does anyone know why when I try to connect a line to a "relation" triangle, it completely shifts all of my pieces around automatically? WTF is with that? I have spent more time trying to stop the software from doing irritating automatic shifting of entities than I have of actually doing productive work with it!

For what its worth, I'm trying to do some very basic UML modeling.

Blargh.

- Frustrated in Milwaukee

[euain]

Have you got automatic layout turned on? Should be at the bottom of the inspector in Canvas: Diagram Layout.

If it's on, try turning it off. If that's not checked, it shouldn't move things about on your behalf.

Euain

[alcimedes]

Ooh, I *love* Omnigraffle. One of my fav. apps. around.

But yeah, it shouldn't be shifting objects for you, I don't think I've ever had mine do that, so it would either be a property of the object int he file, or an option you have enabled that I've always had turned off.

[Partial]

It appears to be doing a random Arrange->Diagram Layout->Lay out entire canvas whenever I try to draw a line segment between two objects.

If I make a screencast can I host it here, or how would I go about getting it on here?

[Enki]

That is exactly the behavior euain talked about! And I have seen it too.

1) Turn on the Inspector with the widget in the upper right of the OG document.
2) Toggle Inspector -> Canvas to arrow down (opening it)
3) Click on the farthest right icon at the top of the Canvas section you just opened. The text in the Inspector will change to Canvas: Diagram Layout
4) de-check that big ugly checkbox at the top, Automatic Layout
5) there is no #5!

[turtle]

I've had a problem getting this to work right for me. I'm wanting to map out my network topography and just failing miserably. What should I set to allow me to create a tree structure showing the flow and layout of my network with names and images for the components?

[Enki]

Personally I turn off the auto-layout, I generally don't want stuff moving about while I am adding things.

You can use any of the default shapes or stencils, most of them include interior text fields. You can fine ready-made free networking stencil sets here, Graffletopia has others too. Dump them in ~/Library/Application Support/OmniGraffle/Stencils.

For connection control go to Inspector -> Properties:Connections. Highlight the widget you want to connect to and adjust the connection magnets to suit the need.

[Kickaha]

Turn off auto-layout until you get everything hooked up, then trigger a single auto-layout.

You don't have to worry about getting it pretty, just getting it dumped onto the screen. Let it do the shuffling around.

[turtle]

Ok, I'll try those out because it was just getting to be a nightmare and taking way to much time just so I had a map of my network. I even tried Visio and didn't get far with it either.

[Kickaha]

Also, try using the networking stencil for what you're doing.

To add a label to any object or shape, just double-click it. You can adjust the placement of the label in the object's Inspector.

[Partial]

Originally Posted by Kickaha Turn off auto-layout until you get everything hooked up, then trigger a single auto-layout. You don't have to worry about getting it pretty, just getting it dumped onto the screen. Let it do the shuffling around.

How does it do that and keep your relation arrows and inheritance lines connected? When it did the auto-layout for me, it just moves all of my arrows and connection lines away from the class information.

I have a hunch I'm not using the software correctly at all.

[Enki]

If the arrows become "disconnected", it means they were not "connected" in the first place. An arrow will show a red circle at the tail-end and a green circle at the head-end when it is actually attached to the widget magnets (connection points). When a line is not connected the indicators will be solid dots, not circles.

[Kickaha]

If I'm reading that right, your 'class information' is not part of the shape, right? Say, like, you've got a box, and then you add a bunch of text objects on top of it, then connect a line to the box, then auto-layout, and the text objects fly elsewhere, right?

The box is the only thing that was connected to. Group any objects you want to keep together as a unit, connect the line, then layout, and the whole unit will stick together.

And, if by class information you mean UML... try using the Software Stencils. They have UML diagramming bits. (Menu item Stencils -> Software -> UML-General)