Dear Dia developers and users, I recently addressed the mailing-list about special features in custom shapes and about recreating other shapes. I've now started recreating shapes in the field of electrical engineering as Dia custom shapes [1]. There are however some features I like to use for which I haven't found a way to implement. First of all I'd like to know if there exists a work-around or if not, what steps I can take to make such features available in Dia. To be clear: it seems none of the options below are possible as of yet, which is fine, but I'd like to have a second-opinion. 1) Is it possible to create a custom dash-array as is part of the svg-specifications? I am now limited to the predefined dashes, which does not included an alternating dash style of a repeating short dash and long dash. 2) Can I define one-dimensional lines rather than shapes? I'd like to include lines with the same specifications (dash-length) as squares and brackets, which are after all part of the specs I'm recreating. 1-D elements however don't seem to render. 3) Can I define user-fillable text-boxes? Creating custom shapes for each specific text is cumbersome, especially if such texts very per placed shape. Basically I'd like to specify the starting-point of text and optionally the formatting. This includes values added on specific places around a shape, for which the placement and alignment is also specified in various norms. 4) Can the alignment of a shape to the grid be specified explicitly? Some shapes have elements in dimensions inbetween a normal grid, although the alignment of the shape to the standard grid is defined. 5) Can a stroke-width be defined in a relative fashion? I have shape 02-02-04 which is intended to be used together with text, but now the stroke-width is to thin compared to the text (like in 02-02-05). Explicitly defining it causes problems when scaling. 6) Can text be specified in other font-styles like italic, ideally varying within a text-field? Text related to an element can cover 'variable = value' where the variable in some cases needs to be italic, whilst the value is a normal font for readability. 7) Will hatching be available in Dia and can hatchings be custom-defined? ISO-standards specify different hatchings for different materials, for which it would be great if they were available to apply to shapes. 8) I've read that in the next version of Dia rotation will be available via a Python plugin. How will it handle text embedded in shapes, since sometimes texts needs to rotate and sometimes it doesn't. Will there be a way to explicitly define this for a shape, which could possibly also be specified for flipping, especially for text definitions. Furthermore I have some more generic questions: a) Earlier I've asked about dealing with different representations of a shape. Shape 06-09-01 is one form of a transformer, whilst 06-09-02 is a second form of the exact same thing, and 06-09-03 is an extension on 06-09-02 with the explicit mention of the polarity. I guess this help clarify my earlier questions. In terms of hierarchy: Power systems > energy conversion > transformers > 2-pole transformer > type of symbol (form 1 or form 2) > additional indications (polarity, screen, variable coupling). The form and the type of transformer (2-pole/3-pole) relates to the number of connections of the shape and therefore might need to be the most explicit definitions, all other aspects could be changed. So rather than having a long list of icons it might be more convenient to have some options within the shape, but as far as I understand this currently requires writing custom code for Dia. Are there any related best-practices? b) In the case of changing text in shapes, the dimensions of some drawing elements of the shape should ideally adjust to match the text. Is there a way to cope with that by using say subshapes? (this question is hypothetical, since I haven't run into this problem yet). If someone can address at least some of the questions I'd be glad. It seems I'm now experiencing the limits of Dia and I'm curious what limits can be stretched and what limits I should cope with (at least for the moment). Thanks in advance. Nico Rikken [1] https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9238838/dia-nico-dev-2014-12-03.zip
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