I know there is a manual for Diagram Studio. My problem is that the manual is - IMHO - very poor, certainly not up to the standard of the other TMS product manuals.
The manual is 84 pages - the first 16 of which are version history, followed by another 18 pages of known problems and fixes! There are just 14 pages on using the components (most of which can be inferred: "TDgrShadowSelector: Allows setting the shadow of selected blocks." followed by a screenshot of the component).
The Blocks can only be created at runtime so their properties cannot be viewed as other component properties can in the IDE. But there is no comprehensive list of the block properties - and worse, no list of the values those properties can have.
So, there is nothing on such things as the possible Block shapes; bsSquareRound is mentioned in What's new for 2008 and bsEllipse is used in an example but that's it.
There is nothing on programatically creating Lines, polylines, etc, (btw trying to create lines or polylines does not seem to work in the example program)
There is mention of Block restrictions but the only values mentioned in passing are crNoMove, crKeepRatio, crNoClipboard, crNoSelect, crResize, crNodelete and crNoLink. The implication is that there are more but what?
I'm sorry to be so negative about what is obviously a very powerful and potentially useful product - but it could be so much better and easier if someone would explain how it to use it!
Hello David. I'm sorry about the lack of information in the manual, but we can answer any question you might have.
Blocks can be added at design-time: just right-click a TatDiagram component and select "Design diagram..." menu option. It will open the toolbar, you can add blocks, lines, select blocks and change the properties are design-time.
Regarding the restrictions crNoMove, crNoResize, crNoRotation, crNoEdit, crNoDelete, crKeepRatio, crNoClipboard, crNoSelect, crNoRotCenterMove, crNoLink, they prevent users to, respectively, move the block, resize, rotate, edit text, delete from diagram, change the aspect ratio (width / height), copy the block to clipboard, select it, change the rotation center and, for crNoLink, prevents user from linking the control to another control through link points.
Thank you for your reply. I'm afraid I might have been a bit harsh with my comments last night, I had had a very frustrating day trying to make Diagram Studio do the things I knew it could!
I did manage to find the various type definitions myself today by searching through the source code. But I had not seen the Design Diagram menu option. I think that will be a big help (I just created a Polyline with it and can now see the basic structure of the points so I now have an idea of how to do that in code).
But I feel the basic comment remains valid. The manual is well below the quality I have come to expect of TMS products. Having to search the source code for clues is not how I usually work with your components!
Hi David, that's no problem, we do know that the documentation is lacking, but then we try to make it up with the support, and slowly improving the docs. We have added the polyline sample to the manual now.