Line Animation Object

The Line Animation objectcan be used draw lines to create animated arrows.

In the Objects tab, double-click on the line animation icon, click it and drag into the edit area. This will take you the the line animation properties window.

General

General settings tab: 🔎︎

Use ctrl+left click to add a line point or right click to edit the animation:

• Add - Add a new line.
• Scale - Set the width and height of the line edit area.
• Line width - Set the drawn width of the line.
• Arrowhead - Check to add an arrow to the start of the line.
• Arrowtail - Check to add an arrow to the end of the line.
• Arrowhead size - Increase/decrease the size of the arrow.
• Render lines - Check to draw lines in the line animation.
• Scale line widths - Specifies whether the line width should scale with the size of the object. If unchecked, the line will have a constant size.
• Preview animation - Check to animate the line with its properties.

Motion

Motion tab:🔎︎

• Do not animate, draw lines instantly - Skip the animation and display the entire line immediately.
• Animation speed
  • Fixed speed - The animation should move with a fixed number of pixels per second.
  • Fixed animation time - The movement should take a fixed time to complete.
  • Relative to object time - The speed to complete the movement should take a proportion of the total time of the object.
• Speed calculation method - This relates to how the object should operate when there are several line branches.
  • Shortest branch - Each level gets drawn at the same time. The shortest line on each level will determine the level's speed. Longer lines on the same level will speed up.
  • Average speed - Each level gets drawn at the same time. The medium line length on each level will determine the level's speed. Longer lines will speed up, shorter lines will slow down.
  • Longest branch - Each level gets drawn at the same time. The longest line on each level will determine the level's speed. Shorter lines on the same level will slow down.
  • Fixed speed - Lines are drawn with the same speed. Shorter lines will be finished before longer lines.
  • Adjusted - Lines will adjust their speeds so that all branches in the line animation finish at the same time.

Data

Data tab:🔎︎

• Connect Data - Read the line coordinates from a data connected text file.
• Connected to external text file - Toggle data connection.
• Data is
  • Line source - The text should be interpreted as line source

NAME Line 1
MOVETO 10,100
LINETO 30,10
LINETO 40,40
LINETO 50,50
LINETO 60,5

• Data is
  • XY coordinates - The text should be interpreted as coordinates of the form X,Y.

Name Line 1
10,100
30,10
40,40
50,50
60,5

Advanced

Advanced tab:🔎︎

Click the Compile button to check for errors:

• Line source - Line source is a sequence of text commands that constitute a description on how to draw the line animation.
• MOVETO X,Y - Move the cursor to the specified coordinate without drawing.
• LINETO X,Y - Move the cursor to the specified coordinate while drawing a line.
• SPLIT - Start a new line branch from this position.
• ENDSPLIT - End the line branch (that was started with the previous split)
• IF <variable> EXISTS - Will check if the specified variable is declared and if so, execute the clause until the next ENDIF. This allows you to setup context- or position-based directions.
• ENDIF - Ends the if clause.