Restricting element movement

[dhaynes]

Okay, this is making me nuts. Noob user, love the software (paid for it out of my own pocket) but the interface ain't working the way I want it to.

On most graphic editing programs you can use shift+mouse or ctrl+mouse to retrict movement of an object to only along the x or y axis.  I realize I can use keyboard arrows, but it's a lame substitute IMHO.

Also there doesn't seem to be a way to adjust the spacing of the snap-to grid. On a high resolution displays (1920x1440 and 2048x1536) the grid is far too small.

Am I missing something or is this a feature request?

[thomaskilian]

Indeed this does not work for EA  and some time I wish this function would be there. In the meantime I use the alignment functions.

[sargasso]

adjust the spacing of the snap-to grid.

Doesn't Options->Diagram->Behaviour->Grid thingo's work for you?

Bruce

[thomaskilian]

This option was switched off by default some time ago since it dropped performance too much (AFAIK). Ever since I lived without that option perfectly. Also it seemed that "micro-layout" (EA optimizes the dragged position so vector are straight) has improved a lot.

[dhaynes]

Thanks for the fast responses!

I've got the grid turned on... but when it's a very high resolution display the grid spacing is *way* too small.  I'd like to be able to change the grid size to 32 or 64 pixels, maybe even larger.

I've just been noticing that the jaggies in the non-horizontal/non-perpendicular lines are a lot of "eye noise" that make the diagrams "feel" more complex than they are.

I also find myself wishing for a 'group/ungroup' operation so that once I have the objects in one portion of a diagram the way I want them I don't have to go back and keep re-selecting the same group of related objects when I need to rearrange things. This may be becuase I've only been using the tool for a few days and haven't figured out  the EA way of doing things - I've just done a lot of work with bitmapped images and flowcharters like Visio and it seems like EA would benefit from some of those features.

It seems like EA has a "direct" interface - the ability to move/select/change objects seems to be based only on their UML relationships rather an abstract or visual interface where the objects may not have obvious semantic or syntactic relationships but do have obvious positional or logical relationships.

For all I know the EA way is better, or I'm doing things wrong by putting too much stuff on a single diagram... these are my initial "gut" impressions.

Older versions of Ulead Photoimpact have the abstract sort of interface down pretty well. Hold down ctrl or shift key and move the mouse and all movement is constrained to either horizontal or vertical.  Select several objects, right click and 'Group' them to move them as a unit. Very handy.

Thanks again for the quick responses... I'm enjoying using the product - after trying almost all this others EA is far and away my favorite (obviously or I wouldn't have plunked my own money down for it!)

BTW access to these forums alone is worth the price of a license. I've learned more about useful real world UML techniques reading on here than I have from the books I've read and piddling about I've done in UML up to this point.