Canvas > Using dot to make complex arrow connections in Canvas

buxtehude · January 21, 2023, 6:12am

I love using canvas, but I am finding the arrow connection behavior is kind of limiting, and the overlapping nature can quickly make the diagram messy. For example, I was trying to replicate this same graph I made in draw.io. And you see the problem.

Original draw.io diagram

I tried to replicate the same in Canvas

I love how I can manipulate connections in draw.io, but I guess that will be hard to implement in Obsidian. So I’d like to suggest a simpler solution for more complex arrow/connection work. And this is straight out of the VFX app Nuke.

using_dot

As you can see, the dot serves a single purpose, to connect two or more different connections. And hopefully, this will be much easier to develop.

ggs · February 23, 2023, 9:23pm

Use case or problem

Canvas Edges can be messy.

Proposed solution

Unreal Engine is a good example of using reroute nodes to good effect.

Current workaround (optional)

Add an empty node and shrink it as small as it will go as seen here:

HeavenIdeas · March 14, 2023, 5:12pm

I was wondering if there has been any news on this. As canvas becomes more and more a part of our workflow I think this feature becomes more and more important. I’m glad other people were asking for this

buxtehude · April 2, 2023, 10:06pm

As a temporary workaround, I scaled a note card as small as possible and link them like this. Yes it gets tedious, not as intuitive as how the dot behaves in Nuke but ok for temp workaround. Eventually I wish Obsidian will implement something.

Danbren · May 17, 2023, 10:46pm

bump. +1

Vodis · February 4, 2024, 7:44pm

Use case or problem

When using canvas to develop ideas, it would be really helpful if I could draw an arrow to another arrow. Sometimes the relationships between objects themselves become objects for other relationships. E.g. A --hates–> B, this hate from A to B causes C ({A->B} → C).

Also it would be really useful to attach things to arrows, so that they are also moved when the arrow moves. I think this could be done in one go.

Proposed solution

I’m not sure how it is implemented exactly but if it is just (start_point, end_point) then it might be possible to add a property to that with a percentage (where on the arrow) where an attachment point is generated. Then to this we could attach arrows and cards.

Current workaround (not really)

Could maybe do an empty card as a dummy to get an attachment point, but it would not move with the arrow and be pretty clunky besides.

untitled · June 17, 2024, 3:36am

+1 for this feature request.

Now there is a need to create another canvas, and in the process of its creation I again encountered the problem of bad paths for arrows (I have highlighted these arrows in red)

I realize that this issue can be solved at the level of node positioning on the canvas, but in this case the top-down positioning of nodes is important, so I don’t want to change it.

For me visual order on the canvas is quite important, and such cases are like an eyesore.
Improved pathing for arrows is sorely lacking. Perhaps relaize them so that they take into account nodes and other arrows in their path, and lay their path with them in mind.
As well as other types of arrows (straight rather than rounded/organic) in general, but that’s for another feature request.

I really like canvas, and would like to see more attention paid to its refinement.

Anyway, thank you very much for what is available now - a great tool.

untitled · June 30, 2024, 1:25pm

Drawflow has a live demo where the Reroute Nodes feature is present. Just click 2 times on the arrows (paths/connections) and a Reroute Node will be created in that place.

Also, Drawflow’s arrows (paths/connections) are implemented very similarly to Obsidian, so you can see at once how it will look like in Obsidian.