plugin / feature request

[ihatedotnet]

Greetings.

It would be nice to have an additional graphic that is usable for the Line / Curve tool. Frankly, I am rather surprised no plugin already exists for this.

What I am asking for would be an additional line style, not for the start or end of the line, but the line itself. You can currently select between Flat, Arrow, Filled Arrow, and Rounded for the start and finish points for the line, however, for the middle of the line itself all you can select between are various types of dashs / dots. It would be very nice to have a middle line graphic option for an arrow as well-- you may be asking yourself, 'why?'

I am working on a graphic that needs to have a sort of 'flow path' or 'step progression' line to show the direction in which a process would take place between several items-- generally, with a simple flow chart, you would only need arrows at the start and finish of the line- however with this particular image I am working on, the complexity of relationships between various objects would be greatly benefited with arrows every so often on the line itself.

Sure, you could clone or copy/paste this same thing on just a standard straight line, but when you are talking about curved lines it goes from being an inconvenience to a very determined time killer to manually add progression arrows on the lines. I hope this makes sense to you, and if not, perhaps I will add an image to explain what I am asking for. Actually, why don't I just add one now.

[W@@dy]

I was actually thinking the same exact thing a few days ago. I made a map, and was using arrowed lines to express path movement across it, and wanted exactly what you're talking about.

I think the reason no one has thought/done this is because the arrows aren't used all that often.

For now you have to just make a bunch of individual lines, snapped end to front to get the same effect, but that's time consuming, and affects the 'flow' of the line you're making

Edited September 25, 2011 by W@@dy

[Ego Eram Reputo]

Custom Brushes anyone? Sure it may not be as elegant as a custom line tool, but think of the possibilities!

[W@@dy]

Custom brushes could work I suppose, but I think placing arrow-lines back to front would be better since you could at least curve the lines more than a custom brush could

[pdnnoob]

Just as a tip to help you with the workaround (putting multiple lines end-to-end), make sure you line up the two pegs on the line with the direction the previous line was pointing. Make sure the tip of the previous arrow is completely covered when you do this. Here's an image to help:

That way, your lines should all look smooth and the "flow" W@@dy is talking about shouldn't be affected too much

[david.atwell]

The reason there isn't a plugin yet is because plugins can't do tools. They can only do effects, adjustments, and filetypes.