Shape with shadows only on SOME lines

[David.P]

....OK, solved the bounding box problem by fiddling with a temporary group in the custom arrowhead's drawing window 

Still getting closer to absolute perfection 



Only remaining issue, is there a way to make the shadow under the arrow head less wide (without affecting the shadow width of the line itself? 

[wapperdude]

I doubt that your application needs scaled lines.

I like to tile both the edit window and the shapesheet window so that I can see effect of the changes.

Regarding the line end, you ought to be able to do everything in the shapesheet at this point.  Open the line end for editing.  Then open the shapesheet.
  1.  Scroll to the protection section and set the LockCalcWH cell to 1.  This prevents the alignment box from resizing.
  2.  Not go to the geometry section.  Here you need to modify your arrow shape.  Note, you could do this in the edit window, but, since the shape is already defined, and presumably simple, it's just as easy to edit here in the shape sheet.
       a.  Look for the cell that sets the max Y value.  At this point it probably says Height*1.  Change the multiplier, say to Height*1.5.  You will see the point move in the edit window.
       b.  Look for the cell that sets the min Y value.  Again, this probably says Height*0.0.  Select this cell, and change it to Height*-0.5.  You should see a symmetrical arrowhead.

Note, as you click in the various geometry cells, they will highlight the vertex corresponding to the geometry row in the shapesheet.

Close the shapesheet window.  Close the edit window, click save and update.  Your drawing should reflect the modified arrowhead.

Wapperdude

[David.P]

OK thank you Wapperdude for your comprehensible instructions! I will try this and report back.

Cheers David.P

[edit:] Oops, are you sure that this is about resizing the shadow of the line end?

[wapperdude]

Discovered another unexpected feature:

Seems that location of the arrowhead on the page has a significant impact on it's appearance on the drawing page.  Not sure why that is!  So, additional recommendations:
  Set the PinX cell value to: Guard(ThePage!Pageheight*0.5)
  Then in the edit window, try moving the alignment box to the left.  Perhaps even partially off page.  That seemed to make a difference for a custom arrowhead that used multiple line curves, especially on the backside "vertical" line. 

This seems strange.  Don't think it's unique to my setup, but, I've not run across this "feature" before.

wapperdude

Ed.:  Ah!  Seems to be only when I modify a duplicated line end shape.

[David.P]

Sorry again: is what you are saying about resizing the shadow of the line end?

Because everything else is perfectly ok already --- only the shadow on the arrow head is too big.

[wapperdude]

When I first discovered the sensitivity of the arrowhead placement upon the edit page, yes, it was in reference to the shadow.  But, then I realized that this only happened when I duplicated the shape and edited the duplicate.  Moral of the story, each custom line end should start as a new, fresh pattern, not as a duplicate based upon a previous pattern.  As long as you start fresh, there is no issue with page placement.

There isn't a whole lot that you can do regarding sizing of the shadow around the arrowhead.  Visio controls this.  You could make the shadow arrowhead size smaller than the normal arrowhead, but this doesn't work well with say big arrowheads.  Plus, this is limited in application.  There are only fixed step sizes with the arrowheads:  medium, jumbo, etc.  There is no in between, e.g., medium jumbo.  However, the difference between very small, and small are less pronounced and might be useful.  You can experiment doing the following:
   1.  Draw your initial arrowhead small.
   2.  Lock the alignment box.
   3.  Now make the arrowhead much bigger, e.g., 4 times width and height.  This will cause a large arrowhead on the drawing page, forcing you to select something like small.
   4.  Set the shadow arrowhead size to be 1 size smaller than the normal size.  This will decrease the overlap.  Either set this by formula in the shadow shapesheet in the Line Format Section, EndArrowSize cell: =guard(sheet.X!EndArrowSize-1) or do it manually by selecting the shadow shape and setting it by hand to very small.  Sheet.X is the top level group shape, where X is the ID number.

I think this is about as close as you can do.  You may have to adjusting the sizing in step 3 above until you get the desired overall appearance.

HTH
Wapperdude

[David.P]

Thank you very much Wapperdude, will try that asap and report back.

Regards David

[wapperdude]

Blink!  Light just went on!!! 

Technique for independent, continuously variable shadow arrowhead size.  Try to say that 10X fast!!!   

It is not necessary to do the shadow arrowhead to be 1 size smaller than the normal arrowhead.  That approach was too limited.

Rather, do the following.
  1. In the group shape, add one more shadow line and send it to the back.
      a. The line weight of this 2nd line will not be a fixed multiple of the original line weight.  You'll either change it manually, or, you could create a shape data property at the group level, whose value you can readily change.  Note, this shadow line weight will always be less than the original shadow weight, but more than the normal line.

  2. In the shapesheet for the original shadow line, use the guard function to lock the line ends to none, i.e., guard(0).

  3.  Since the arrowhead scales with the lineweight, as you change the 2nd shadow line, you will change the amount of overlap of the arrowhead shadow.  You can now finely tune the amount of overlap.

Summarizing, you have 3 stacked lines:  top level is the normal level, middle level is the line shadow without any applied ends, and the bottom level which has line ends, but, its lineweight is independently adjustable -- smaller than the mid level line weight, but, slightly greater than the top level normal line weight.  Thus the line shadow overlap will appear to remain constant, but the arrowhead shadow overlap is freely adjustable.
 
You can make this width track by the top level line width by guarded formula, and make the amount of overlap setable at the group level with an editable group level shape property.
Wapperdude

[David.P]

Ahhhh! I said it ten times fast 

Thank you!

The rest goes a bit over my head, unfortunately 

I mean, I understand the GENIUS principle with the 3 stacked lines for "line", "line shadow" and "end shadow", but I honestly don't know how to fabricate this -- neither with custom line/end patterns, and much less using the shape sheet 

Do you think you could send me a sample that uses this prinicple? Maybe starting with my (attached) current labeling shape set?

From there, I should be able to work my way through to full understanding how it is done.

Cheers
David

[wapperdude]

Here's example of what I was explaining.

[David.P]

Great Wapperdude -- thank you very much. Amazing.

I will try and fabricate my labeling shapes from this.

If I am finished, may I have your............
paypal address? Honestly, these little shapes will actually make me earn money (because it will make my drawings having even better quality).

Therefore, I feel that I'd like to compensate/donate for at least some of your efforts.

[wapperdude]

Your gratitude is enough.

Wapperdude

[David.P]

I'm amazed and humbled by your shape generosity