UI Question

[azamiryou]

I've looked in the help and forums, and haven't been able to find an answer to this: Is there any way to join two existing links?

Examples:

I draw a link to join two existing ones, but "miss" when clicking so two ends are next to each other but not connected. Can I connect them, or do I have to delete the link and draw it again?

I build half a bridge, select and copy it, then paste the other half. Is there any way to connect the two together? Or do I have to place it as close as I can, then delete any of the links that are supposed to connect and re-draw them?

[JP]

You can connect them, but the two links need to be close enough to be connected (maybe this goes without saying).

Hold down SHIFT as you click on one of the endpoints and start to drag the node towards the other endpoint that you want to connect to. Then release the SHIFT key and the endpoints should snap together once they are close enough.

Sorry if that makes no sense. English is my first language, but that doesn't mean that I'm good at explaining things.

[azamiryou]

Then release the SHIFT key

Ah-ha! This is what I was missing. Thank you.

That solves the first problem then, but doesn't seem to help with the second (connecting pasted items). Any thoughts on that?

[Ryo_Sangnoir]

In a way that makes no sense at all, if you hover over the button and "Change mouse function" to "Move existing nodes and links" you can get links to connect wherever you want very easily. This doesn't work by holding down shift, oddly enough.

Much like how zooming doesn't work if you're on zoom/control mode, but only if you hold down ctrl. Strange.

[dudiobugtron]

In a way that makes no sense at all, if you hover over the button and "Change mouse function" to "Move existing nodes and links" you can get links to connect wherever you want very easily. This doesn't work by holding down shift, oddly enough.

Wow, I don't understand that, but I'll have a play with it because that would be awesome.

The method I used to use is just to move the whole structure til the endpoints I wanted to join overlapped, then use shift on one of the endpoints to join them.

[azamiryou]

I don't understand either. Is it a way to get pasted objects to connect up? "Hovering" the mouse over buttons doesn't seem to do anything for me.

[Ryo_Sangnoir]

Well, yes, you'll have to move them over each other first if you're working with non-cloth, rope or elastic (due to maximum lengths). And even if you are, minor changes can change the outcome.

Left of the start/stop button, there's a button. Hover over, click + hold, it's the second one.

[azamiryou]

Okay, here's what I'm doing. Please tell me what I need to do different.

1 - Start a level ("Introduction" works)
2 - Draw a simple triangle of bars
3 - Hold down TAB while dragging mouse over the triangle to select it
4 - CTRL-C to copy the triangle to the clipboard
5 - CTRL-V to paste. Now there's a second triangle on the screen, which moves around with the cursor until I click. At this point, if I

click on the screen - the triangle gets pasted, but is not connected to anything regardless of how well it is lined up.

hover the mouse over the "Change Mouse Function" button - first of all, as soon as the mouse leaves the play area, the new triangle snaps to where the cursor was when I first pasted it. With the mouse hovering over the button, nothing happens. If I press and hold the mouse button, the tooltip text "Change mouse function" pops up, but nothing else. Moving the mouse while continuing to hold the button, nothing else happens. If I release the button, the paste operation completes (triangle still not connected).

Outside of the paste operation, the "Change mouse function" button works as expected. But if I set it to "move existing nodes and links" before I paste, then pressing CTRL (as part of CTRL-V to paste) changes the mouse mode (to "Scroll/Zoom View" when pressed, and "Create new links" when released).

Please give exact steps for copying a triangle of metal bars, and pasting the copy in so it is connected to something else. I apologize if I am being extremely dense.

[Ryo_Sangnoir]

Copy/paste triangle onto screen. Move it & click so that the anchor points that you wish to put together are directly over each other. If you click too early, hold tab while dragging the mouse over the triangle to put it into position.

And then, with both endpoints occupying either the same, or close enough so that they neither go over their maximum length nor change the shape of the triangle (if needed), click (to get rid of the movement, as it is in the right place), and then use either shift (method given by dudiobugtron) or "move existing nodes and links" to join them up.

Sorry for unclearness.

[dudiobugtron]

use either shift (method given by dudiobugtron)

Well, it was my method - but the 'shift' part of it was actually given by JP.