Break line pair (Roadway break), free movement, transparent lines in between

[Ricky78]

Hi, I'm looking for a modified "Roadway break" which allows to move the two break lines away from each other along a connector line path and hide the connector line in between the two break lines (obviously). Has anyone done this before? Attached a picture where I tried to explain this a bit .

Curious to hear what can be done.

[Yacine]

I hope this one is good enough despite the white space not going till the breaker.

Note also that this is simply overlapping the connectors. Messing with them with a real break is on a way other level of difficulty.

You cannot view this attachment.

[Ricky78]

Hi Yacine, thank you for the quick reply. Attached the screenshot showing your breakline on the top and another oneI found in Visio called "Break line". Yours has the advantage to use additional control handles. The one from Visio has the nice feature that the lines but up against the break line. What I'm looking for additionally is a way to hide the lines in between the two break lines when doing L-turns, U-turns and Z-turns with the lines. If the lines don't but up against the breakline that's not a big deal if that's too big of a challange.

Of course I could just use another "white" box and clear the lines between the break lines out but if that box would be a part of the shape that would be ideal.

Thanks again for your help on this.

[wapperdude]

Try this.  It is a modification of Yacine's approach.  It uses right click menu at the top to choose between parallel lines or a right angle corner.  There are 3 controls:  on the left to control line height, on the right to control parallel line / width separation, at the top to control upper line position / width.  The whole shape may be rotated.

The action menu hides/shows appropriate line segment.  There are multiple geometries:  1st sets white space.  It is generally not edited.  The 2nd thru 4th control look of the line segments.  Each of these could be carefully edited to create a squiggly line if desired.

[Ricky78]

Great that works just fine, thank you so much. You guys are awesome!

[wapperdude]

OK.  Too much free-time.  Here's updated file.  It now sports the wigglely line that Yacine 1st presented.  For show N tell purposes, the fill is medium gray...just set it to white from the ribbon.  Simplified controls, there's just two.  Shape width and height are used to set basic size limits.  The two controls just adjust the size of the visible lines. 

There are 2 unexpected enhancements, can you find them?

[Ricky78]

thank you for the new shape with the wiggly line. nice that the connector lines run right up against them. not sure what the (2) enhancements are you refer to....curious to hear about it. I checked the ShapeData but couldn't see anything added. Maybe in the ShapeSheet? This would be new stuff for me never messed with this seems to be quite involved....further, I have a utility to create connections points at the sides of a shape. but here the wiggly line is adjustable and shorter than the shape border. is there a way to automatically add connection points to the wiggly lines only and that they spread uniformly when the length of the line is adjusted? no big deal but now this all gets me curious

[wapperdude]

Minor update.  You noticed one of the enhancements.  The other is more subtle, but, bit more obvious in this update.       

Connection points:  hmmmm....
My impression was that this shape would be merely placed on top of the existing routes.  Connection points reference the shape's width and height.  That is fine in the parallel line case, but that is a problem for the corner case.  For that case, the line lengths are set by the control points which may vary without changes to shape size.  To handle the corner case would require a different methodology and probably some code.

[Ricky78]

I believe I found the 2nd enhancement if the shape is set to "parallel" there is no control handle

Took me a while 

[wapperdude]

👍 👏

[wapperdude]

Update that allows (clunky???) addition of connection points.  Hey. It works!   

Basically, used two shapes and grouped them.  This is the orange filled shape as shown in the attached file.  The parent, top shape has all of the controls and mode selection as before.  However, each subshape may be individually selected, and that allows addition of connection points.  Not the nicest approach, but it does work.  Now, whatever method is used to resize, the connection points will track.

[Yacine]

I wonder if custom connectors wouldn't be an option.
A 1D shape as group. In it 3 connectors - or only 2 for the ends.
The ends visible and can be formatted as needed and routed manually.
In between either an invisible connector or nothing.
The containing group could still be interpreted as connector and be inspected by code (to report on connections)
Controls points of that group could define the extends of the underlying connectors.

Just some silly thoughts...

[wapperdude]

Actually, your idea is quite similar to something John Gold smith did s few years ago, see https://visualsignals.typepad.co.uk/vislog/2015/04/building-a-labelled-dynamic-connector-in-visio.html.

The idea was to avoid schematic clutter by only show labelled Stubbs at begin / end of each connector.  The middle could be shown or hidden.  The problem is you lose the visual continuity clue.  But, taking from a recent post, perhaps when a connector is selected, its full shape could be visible, eh?

Edit:  27 Mar 2025, The "recent" post is this one:  https://visguy.com/vgforum/index.php?topic=10683.msg50521;topicseen#msg50521

[Yacine]

... so you were complaining about bad memory? 
And yes, now I recall having seen that too. Basically the same, just with longer stubs.

[wapperdude]

     ...Ah!  That memory reference...yes, but taken out of context though; when it was made, an allusion to...Nevada, Area 51, sudden memory loss, bright lights, shadowy figures... aliens, deliberate memory wipe conspiracy thing.  Granted, at least some elements of truth.   

Anyway, your post triggered that memory.