improve Connections method

[qin tian]

In one of my big model, there are so many connections that I cannot see the objects clearly. I have a suggestion to improve it.

In the side bar of Orthen view, we can have four checkbox:

1 show connections to selected objects only
2 show connections from selected objects only
3 show connections to and from selected objects only
4 show all connections (Include unselected objects)

Thus, we can exclude irrelevant connections when debug model.

[Cliff King]

Nice suggestion Qin.

Another thought regarding connections, would be to have different colored lines definable by the user for different families of connections. I also think it would help communication to have arrow heads at intervals along the lines to indicate direction for output-to-input port connections.

Some people have suggested we make the connections have a data structure of their own, so that they can be clickable, have attributes, and be deleted via the mouse, etc. I'm not sold on this idea because of the amount of overhead this would bring to a model.

I would like to hear other people's suggestions regarding connections. Port connections are a big part of the Flexsim package, and we will be looking at ways to improve them in future releases (specifically the 4.5 release in August).

[qin tian]

Yes, cliff, I like your idea.
And I think we'd better use dropdown list instead of checkbox to express the above four options.

[qin tian]

I like arrow.

As to color, I think we can have the following options:
1 change color of connections to selected objects
2 change color of connections from selected objects
3 change color of connections to and from selected objects

[Jason Lightfoot]

How about we have the option to show this information just for the highlighted object - that way the user can quickly click from one to another?

Secondly, I think it would be nice to do something similar to cells in spreadsheets when you double click on a formula and it colours the borders of the cells the formula references. We could show different coloured bounding boxes around objects depending on whether they are an input, output and center object. We could even put a number above the object indicating the port number.

[tobias.biemueller]

I think a combination of arrows, colors and a fast choice in the sidebar will be the best.

I attach a picture of one of my models.. if its only with colors and arrows, you can not see anything. So selected objects ports on or off its better for the overview.

Tobias

[AlanZhang]

We could have two group of options:

Show connections for:

Highlighted Object;
Selected Object;
All Object;
Connection From/To:

From;
To;
Both;By the way, there are keyboard shortcuts to view connections, V+Left Mouse Button to view input/output, and C+Left Mouse Button to view central connections. However, only names of connected objects are displayed. If the connection lines are also displayed, that would help too.

[Brandon Peterson]

Not to burst anyone's bubble on cool stuff that could be added but hiding the ports of a group of selected objects already exists.

With the Show Connections check box checked so that you can see all of the ports select a group of objects that you don't want to see the ports for and in the Edit Selected Objects group on the left of the view go to the Switches option and click the Toggle Ports button. Like magic all of the ports for the selected objects will disappear.

This isn't as cool as some of the suggestions made but it is a way to do what you want right now without having to wait for a new release.

Brandon