Shapes Relations Manipulation Tool

[Yacine]

Hi guys,
I've been working on this for quite a while now.
It's a tool that allows to set up formulas between shapes from a dialog.
A parser is built in so you can write freely scripts to modify your drawings.
Let me know if the presentation I prepared is somehow understandable and what you think about the tool.

Cheers,
Yacine

[Yacine]

The first example shows a tabular arrangement of shapes using the modulus function.

The second shows the built-in random function. [?] translates in a random number between -0.5 and +0.5. So you can add a bit of chaos to your drawings.

[Yacine]

Here I tried to get radial arrangement of shapes. But the result is not yet as expected.

And then the magical Junichi chain. I coloured it and made the width of the next shape each time smaller. Move the first shape and enjoy playing.

[Yacine]

Keeping Junichi's idea in mind, I modified the formulas so, that several shapes can follow one parent.
Drag the end of a connector to modify the drawing.

In the second example, I injected a formula that sums values of the child shapes and translates the result in a line weight. So basically the beginning of a Sankey tool.

[Yacine]

This one is a neat example that shows how to format a complete graph with only one script.
If I had used guard functions on the formulas, it would have been the adaptation of V2010's containers and lists for V2007.

[Yacine]

And here are the visio files.
I would be glad if the tool could get mature and be available as stable tool to download from somewhere. Github?
I welcome everybody to colaborate.

Cheers,
Y.

[wapperdude]

Looks very interesting.  Will have to "play" with it to fully appreciate your effort and the capabilities that you've captured.

Looking forward to exploring...

Wapperdude

[Yacine]

I took the time to better present the tool.

[Yacine]

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[Yacine]

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[Yacine]

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[Yacine]

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[Yacine]

And the nightly build version of the stencil with macros.

[Yacine]

Got the metro script to work.

Step 1: setting up the background.

Code

IF prop.hierarchydepth = 0 THEN
width:=thepage!pagewidth-20mm;
height:=ThePage!PageHeight-20 mm;
pinx:=thepage!pagewidth/2;
piny:=thepage!pageheight/2;
LeftMargin:=10pt;
TopMargin:=10pt;
ENDIF

Step 2: Define size and position of the shapes at hierarchyDepth=1

Code

IF prop.hierarchydepth = 1 THEN
prop.sort := [L]!prop.sort+1;
height:=if(modulus(prop.sort,3)=0,150mm,75mm);
width:=if(modulus(prop.sort,3)=0,60mm,70mm);
locPinX:=width*0;
locPinY:=height*0;
pinX:=if(modulus(prop.sort,3)=0,if(len(prop.leftsibling)>0,[L]!pinX+[L]!width,10mm),if(modulus(prop.sort,3)=1,[L]!PinX+[L]!width,[L]!PinX));
pinY:=if(modulus(prop.sort,3)=2,[L]!PinY+height,if(modulus(prop.sort,3)=1,[L]!PinY,[L]!PinY-[L]!height));
ENDIF

Step 3: Added some cosmetic features to color the shapes.
Don't be surprised by getting white shapes, when you run the script. I did not handle the condition where the leftsibling is empty.
So re-colour the first shape to see the colours of its siblings change.
The gap between the shapes is simply given by a thicker line weight with the same colour as the parent.

Code

IF prop.hierarchydepth = 1 THEN
LineWeight:=width/20;
LineColor:=[P]!fillforegnd;
LeftMargin:=LineWeight;
RightMargin:=LineWeight;
Fillforegnd:=HSL(HUE([L]!fillforegnd)+35,SAT([L]!fillforegnd),LUM([L]!fillforegnd));
ENDIF

[Yacine]

 I introduced new placeholders:
[PrSel] for the previous shape in the selection,
[NxSel] for the next shape,
[NumSel] for the number of shapes selected,
[Sel1] for the first selected shape and
[lastSel] for the last selected shape.

With these new placeholders arbitrary and non prepared shapes can be handled by the tool.
PinX:=[PrSel]!PinX+[PreSel]!width/2+width/2+10mm;
Would arrange the shapes in the selection with a gap of 10 mm in between.