Use a line animation object to draw lines with arrows for example create noticeable directions to points of interest.
Create a line animation object
In the Objects tab, double-click on the line animation icon or click it and draw where you want it on the edit area.
Settings
Right-click the list object and select Edit to bring up the Edit list animation window.
Line edit area
In the area to the right, you may ctrl+left click to add a line point.
General tab
Add
Add a new line
Scale
- Set the width and height of the line edit area (see above)
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 tab
Do not animate, draw lines instantly
- Skip the animation altogether 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 (see figure above) 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 tab
Connect Data
- Read the line coordinates from an data connected text file.
Connected to external text file
- Allow you to toggle the data connection on/off.
Data is:
- Line source
- The text should be interpreted as line source
Example:
NAME Line 1 MOVETO 10,100 LINETO 30,10 LINETO 40,40 LINETO 50,50 LINETO 60,5
- The text should be interpreted as line source
- XY coordinates
- The text should be interpreted as coordinates of the form X,Y.
Example:
Name Line 1 10,100 30,10 40,40 50,50 60,5
Advanced tab
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.
Click the Compile button to check for errors.