Oriented circles?
 

Hi everybody! I enjoyed omnigraffle shipped with my good ol' powerbook, but now since I bought myself a macbook air, I need some advice. I hope I won't be too naive...

I really like the power to draw easily protocols, computer schemas and so on, but something I am missing, is a simple way of drawing [B]oriented circles[/B]. Maybe I just don't see it, as I said I maybe too naive!

It's probably easier to see my attachent, so that it's clear what I mean.

I find it difficult to imagine a fast way to get an oriented half-circle with bezier curves. Can anyone give me some advice?

Thanks!

Quickest way I can think of would be to use a straight line type replete with midpoints at the "corners" to create a squareish shape, and then apply a very large corner radius.

Hope that helps,

[QUOTE=Joel;50044]Quickest way I can think of would be to use a straight line type replete with midpoints at the "corners" to create a squareish shape, and then apply a very large corner radius.

Hope that helps,[/QUOTE]

Well, somehow. I can always draw circles by using bezier curves, but that is not easy: tangents and midpoints must be suitably placed. It's not something you use "on the fly".

Any "add-on" I can use? Some magical trick like "do it once and then re-use it"?

Thanks!

Either:

File > New Resource > New Stencil

Or:

Ctrl-Click > Copy As > Applescript

You could use the adjustable arc shape to make the circle, then add a very short line segment to one end for the arrow. Group it and make it a stencil for reuse.

Where is this "adjustable arc" shape to be found? I searched omni graffle's help and nothing came up. Are you talking about the Pen Tool with bezier adjustments?

Stencils > Stencil Library > Common > Shapes

[QUOTE=moniker;50611]Where is this "adjustable arc" shape to be found? I searched omni graffle's help and nothing came up. Are you talking about the Pen Tool with bezier adjustments?[/QUOTE]

First, it's a version 5 feature. You can get to it through the stencils, but you can also use the shape tool. The arc is easy to overlook, but very cool. Select the shape tool, then look in the inspector for the shape that looks like a wedge of pie (there are two). You want the first one ("Adjustable Arc", not "Adjustable Wedge"). The key thing is that once you place the arc in your diagram, the handles of the arc are adjustable, so you can draw the arc of a circle between any two angles from 0 to 360 degrees.

Should also point out that the adjustable arc and star shapes are new to 5.1, which is still in beta testing, so if you have OmniGraffle 5.0.2 they won't be in there.