Nevron Diagram for .NET Features

Regardless of whether you are creating a WinForms or an ASP.NET diagramming application, with Nevron Diagram for .NET, you use the same API to create your diagram documents.
The set of objects you can use to construct a document is called the document object model (DOM). The DOM of Nevron Diagram for .NET is very consistent and designed to be further extended.

It all starts with the type of document you want to construct. In the diagram, you basically have two types of documents:

• Drawing Document - represents a diagram drawing. A drawing basically consists of shapes residing in layers. Shapes can be linked to form complex graph relationships. Drawings can be automatically laid-out, visually edited, and exported to various raster and vector formats (for example, BMP, PNG, and SVG, to name a few). Drawings can be printed.


• Library Document - represents a collection of reusable drawing clippings (masters), which you can drag and drop into the drawing document. Masters can contain one or more shapes and the connections between them.

Both types of documents are constructed from a consistent set of elements, the most notable ones being shapes. Documents are displayed inside different views in the context of WinForms and ASP.NET environments.

When constructing diagrams, you basically work with shapes. In Nevron Diagram for .NET, there are two types of shapes:

• 2D shapes
  2D shapes represent boxes containing vector or raster primitives and text. 2D shapes are usually simply called shapes.


• 1D shapes
  1D shapes represent lines with different geometry and behavior, which interconnect other shapes. 1D shapes are often called connectors.

Nevron Diagram for .NET provides an extensive set of predefined shapes (see Predefined Shapes) but also lets you create custom ones by simply composing drawing primitives (lines, polylines, curves, rectangles, ellipses, text blocks, etc.).

All types of shapes can be grouped to create groups. Groups can also be by preference 1D or 2D. They act as a single shape but are, in fact, composed of several others. Groups can be used for the creation of custom shapes.

All 1D shapes have plugs, while both 1D and 2D shapes can have an arbitrary number of ports. A diagram with connections is thus primarily constructed by connecting plugs to ports. Nevron Diagram for .NET also supports an extended type of connection, which is performed by inward and outward ports - e.g., shapes can be connected by ports too.

In Nevron Diagram, you can convert a 1D shape to a 2D shape and vice versa via a single property.

All types of shapes can have control points. Control points are used to visually change the appearance of a shape by simply dragging them.

All types of shapes can have an arbitrary number of labels. Labels can be anchored to specific aspects of the shape.

The visual appearance of all diagram elements is controlled via styles. Styles can be locally specified (per each element individually) or reused through the inheritance or style sheets.

The usage of inheritance and style sheets greatly minimizes the effort needed to apply a consistent outlook to your diagram and then have the ability to easily change it. It also minimizes the memory footprint of your diagrams.

Nevron Diagram for .NET provides you with built-in options to consistently customize the behavior of different diagram elements. Following is a brief overview of the most important behavior customization features:

• Protection
  Protection helps you protect certain diagram element aspects from being changed or viewed by the user. For example, you can protect shapes from being moved, resized, printed, exported to an image, deleted, etc.


• Interaction style
  The interaction style defines the aspects of a shape, for which a view must create trackers (visual editors with handles) when the shape is selected. For example: when a 2D shape is selected, the view will create trackers for its bounds, rotation angle, and pinpoint. If you want to remove the rotation angle and pinpoint trackers, you just have to apply the desired interaction style to the shape.


• Translation slaves
  Translation slaves let you specify the shapes, which are automatically translated when a certain shape is translated. This helps you build rigid structures.

Nevron Diagram for .NET gives you full control over advanced visual effects. Raster graphics effects include image filters, which can be applied to any element, displaying vector and/or raster content. Image filter effects can be combined with classical fill styles (solid color, gradient, hatch, image, and advanced gradients).

The component has industry-leading support for shadows - it provides several types of shadows and lets you choose the Z-order in which they are dropped (behind the document, behind the layer, etc.).

Diagram-specific decorations are also not left behind. Nevron Diagram for .NET can automatically display bridges (hops) on connector intersections and self-intersections. The bridge's appearance is controlled via styling.

In diagramming, arrowheads are usually used to distinguish between the different types of relations (one to many, one to one, etc.). Nevron Diagram has numerous built-in arrowheads, provides the ability to define custom ones, and lets you customize their appearance via styling.

Nevron Diagram for .NET has a built-in support for graph and tree data structures and the core operations with them:
For example, performing different traversals - depth-first, breadth-first, etc., checking whether the graph is acyclic, whether it is a tree, and so forth.

Graph and tree data structures can be generated from the shapes of a drawing document. This gives you the needed flexibility to operate with a visually constructed diagram as if it is a simple graph or tree.

You won't find many diagram components which work transparently with different measurement units. In Nevron Diagram for .NET, you can use Metric, English, and pixel units to define your drawing content measurements. The component also provides support for drawing scale, which lets you work with either too small or too large drawings (for example, diagrams measured in nanometers or kilometers).

The automatic arrangement of diagrams is an indispensable feature, especially when diagrams are either too large or are automatically generated. Nevron Diagram for .NET comes equipped with a sophisticated set of automatic layouts. Following is a brief overview:

The Nevron Diagram Visio Stencil Importer will allow you to import and reuse the standard or custom-designed MS Visio shapes inside your projects which use Nevron Diagramming controls. It takes as an input an XML serialized Visio stencil (VSX format) and imports its shapes in a Nevron library document which you can use with Nevron diagrams.

Review the Nevron Diagram Gallery for some examples of imported Visio Shapes inside Nevron Diagram.

We are providing support for additional customization of the shapes and full integration for desktop or web applications. Now, you can build more complex and stylish diagrams by combining the Visio shapes with the power of Nevron Diagramming components. Developers can exploit all the functionality of the Nevron Diagram to further customize and fine-tune your projects, well beyond the capabilities of any other diagramming solution available.

Nevron Diagram for .NET has built-in support for the display of maps. ESRI shapefiles (the industry-leading standard for storing map data) can be easily imported into any diagram with just a few lines of code.

Maps and diagrams fit perfectly together – in many cases, the simple vector data provided by the ESRI shapefiles needs additional decorations and interactivity extensions. For example, you may want to display predefined shapes on certain points of interest, use different color coding rules depending on the data associated with the shape, provide the user with the ability to drag and drop objects on maps, etc., provide free-hand drawing, etc. – in all these scenarios you will soon discover that you do not need a simple map component – you need a diagram with map support.

Following is a brief overview of the most important mapping features:

• Supports ESRI shapefile format - the industry leading standard
• Supports 22 projection types
• Intelligent layer properties- show/hide layers based on zoom level
• Automatic naming and labeling of map elements through data field association
• Full programmatic access to map elements, including shapes and paths

Nevron Diagram for .NET provides the leading built-in support for developing thick client diagramming applications.

Nevron Diagram for .NET provides built-in support for developing interactive thin client diagramming applications. It can operate either in Postback or in AJAX mode. Following is a brief description of the thin client modes: