Smart links

Smart links keep lines attached to shapes. When you move a shape, the ends of lines that touch it move with it, so a diagram's connectors stay connected. Nothing is stored in the file: a line end counts as attached when it lies within a few pixels (45 Fig units, about 0.04 inch) of the shape's outline at the moment you start the operation.

Turning it on

The indicator's Smart Links button has three choices:

• Off (the default): nothing follows, as in plain editing.
• Move: an attached end point moves with the shape.
• Slide: the end point moves and the point before it slides so that the last segment keeps its horizontal or vertical direction. Good for right-angle connectors.

The button shows in Move, Copy, Move point, Scale, Flip, Rotate and Align modes.

What attracts lines (targets)

Boxes, rounded boxes and pictures (the edges), compounds (anywhere inside their box), and, within 45 Fig units of the outline: circles, ellipses, arcs, polygons, closed splines and text boxes.

What follows (followers)

Open polylines and open splines. A line attached to two shapes that move together follows at both ends. Only the end points are linked, not points in the middle.

Operations that carry the links

Move, Copy (the attached lines are copied with the shape; the original line's end follows the copy as in xfig), rotate, flip, scale, align, the arrow-key nudge command, and Move point on a box corner (resizing the box stretches the attached lines with its edges; this last one is a RustFig extension). The Move, Copy, Move point and Scale previews show every follower.

Undo reverts the shape and its lines in one step.