MindFusion FlowChart.NET Professional

What's New in MindFusion FlowChart.NET 5.7?

• Interactive node alignment via alignment guides
• FractalLayout tree layout algorithm
• Specify start and end nodes for LayeredLayout
• ButtonComponent supports repeat mode
• Slider and spinner components for CompositeNodes
• DiagramView can use third-party scrollbars

What's New in MindFusion FlowChart.NET 5.6.4?

• Snap links to nodes from a distance
• Serialization of CompositeNode components
• DiagramView3D improvements
• WmfExporter now exports the swimlane grid
• GetNearestNode method added

What's New in MindFusion FlowChart.NET 5.6.3?

• CompositeLayout multi-level graph layout algorithm
• Improved alignment in FlowchartLayout branches
• OrthogonalLayout improved to create less link bends
• DisableMirroring constraint prevents users from flipping a node
• Scripting and CompositeLayout sample projects added

What's New in MindFusion FlowChart.NET 5.6.2?

• Define node shapes using Visio-like shape formulas
• Define node shapes through GraphicsPath objects
• Improved support for nodes with non-uniform size in SpringLayout
• Improved symmetry in SpringLayout
• SpringLayout.Randomize randomizes initial node positions

What's New in MindFusion FlowChart.NET 5.6.1?

Export/Import improvements

• The swimlane grid can be exported to Visio by setting the ExportLanes property of VisioExporter.
• PdfExporter supports radial gradients.
• VisioImporter can import attributes from shape masters.
• Improved support for importing Visio groups.
• Parsing SVG content became slow after the additions in V5.6. Now parsing speed has been improved.

CompositeNode improvements

• The FocusedComponent property specifies which component has the keyboard focus.
• Components now raise MouseMove, GotFocus and LostFocus events.
• Convert point coordinates between the diagram and component coordinate systems by calling ToDocument or ToLocal methods.
• The Draw method of components now receives a RenderOptions parameter.
• An advanced CompositeNode -derived sample class in included in the Demo project.

What's New in MindFusion FlowChart.NET 5.6?

• Now you can compose nodes from various kinds of components
• Standard border, text, image and shape components added
• Standard button, checkbox and edit components added
• Simple, stack and grid panels for component layout added
• SvgNodes now support SVG text and marker elements
• NodePointed or LinkPointed events added

What's New in MindFusion FlowChart.NET 5.4?

Swimlane layout
Swimlane Layout can be used to arrange process diagrams in which nodes representing activities are placed in swimlanes representing resources. The index of the resource allocated to an activity should be assigned to the corresponding node's LayoutTraits [SwimlaneLayoutTraits.Lane]. By default, the algorithm works with the diagram's LaneGrid, but its SwimlaneGrid property can be set to any class that implements ISwimlaneGrid. This allows applying the layout to a custom-drawn grid rendered through the DrawBackground event, or one composed of locked background nodes. 

Export diagrams to WMF format
WmfExporter creates WMF (Windows MetaFile) images from the content of Diagram objects. In order to use this component, add a reference to the MindFusion.Diagramming.Export.Wmf.dll assembly to your project. To create a WMF file from a diagram, create a WmfExporter instance and call its Export method, passing a Diagram object as parameter.

Other export improvements

• SvgExporter supports dashed pens.
• Support for shapes with alternating fill style added to PDF and SVG exporters.
• Improved quality of curved shapes in SVG.
• PdfExporter supports bitmaps with Format32bppPArgb pixel format.

Text formatting improvements

• TextPadding specifies the size of the padding area between the text of nodes and their borders.
• Speed of the styled text formatting algorithm has been improved.

Miscellaneous

• Items can be drawn with the right mouse button when RightButtonActions is set to Draw.
• ControlNodes now check the SelectionOnTop property before bringing hosted controls to front.
• Fixed a ShowArrowHeads bug in DiagramView3D.
• The order of child nodes in TreeLayout can be reversed by setting Balance to Reversed.
• LinkType adds support for Bezier links to SpringLayout.
• SerializationBinder allows loading diagram files that contain serialized instances of renamed types.

What's New in MindFusion FlowChart.NET 5.3.5?

Support for .NET 4
The package now includes a .NET 4 version of the MindFusion.Diagramming assemblies, available in the VS2010 subfolder of the installation folder. These assemblies can also be used in applications that target the .NET 4 Client Profile. The VS2010 folder also includes sample projects for Visual Studio 2010. Versions 2 and 3 of the .NET runtime are still supported.

Other Improvements

• The Toolbox Installer tool can be used to automatically add the MindFusion.Diagramming components to a tab of the Visual Studio toolbox.
• The Id property added to DiagramItem allows assigning custom identifiers to items. It can also be used to just store additional custom data similarly to Tag.
• Call FindLinkById and FindNodeById to find items by their Id.
• Shadows can be painted using any brush type and not only in solid color.
• The ShadowColor property has been replaced by ShadowBrush.
• The FoldedContainerSize property allows setting the size of folded containers to be larger than their caption bar.
• ShapeNodes whose Brush is set to a PathGradientBrush instance now use a gradient path corresponding to their Shape instead of a rectangle.  

What's New in MindFusion FlowChart.NET 5.3.4?

ArrowHead enhancements

• The type of the HeadShape, BaseShape and IntermediateShape properties of DiagramLink has been changed from enum ArrowHead to class Shape, which is also used to define ShapeNode shapes. The ArrowHeads class now exposes Shape definitions that correspond to the ArrowHead enumeration members from previous versions. It is also possible to assign any Shapes member or a custom shape as an arrowhead. When used for arrowheads, position (50, 0) in the shape definition corresponds to the arrowhead's tip point.
• Now IntermediateShape arrowheads are also rendered for Bezier links.
• Different arrowhead shapes can be filled with distinct brushes as set through HeadBrush, BaseBrush and IntermediateBrush.
• Arrowheads can be custom drawn at arbitrary locations through the DrawArrowhead method.
• Support for intermediate arrowheads added to DxfExporter.

Other Enhancements

• The ShapeDesigner tool now supports filled decoration objects (used in BPMN shapes).
• ShapeDesigner allows drawing the shape's text region outside the shape outline.
• HitTest method added to TreeViewNode.
• A new LoadFromXml overloaded method allows loading diagram items without changing the diagram's properties.
• UBendMaxLen property added to QuickRouter.
• SvgNodes support rgb(%) notation for color values.
• Added support for SVG symbol references.

What's New in MindFusion FlowChart.NET 5.3.3?

• The static FromSvg method of the Shape class creates a shape corresponding to the outline of an SVG drawing
• The ContentAlign property of SvgNode specifies how a drawing is aligned relatively to the node
• Improved support for gradients in SVG
• SvgContent can parse files with embedded CSS styles
• Adjustment handles styling
• LinkCreateCancelled and NodeCreateCancelled events raised when the user cancels item creation
• The Parent property of TreeViewItem returns the parent item
• The Table property of the Row class returns the TableNode that contains the specified row
• TriggerRerouting can be set to WhileModifying to re-route links while their incident nodes are moved or resized
• MiddleSegment and MiddleSegmentRotated styles added to the LinkTextStyle enumeration
• Granularity property added to QuickRouter
• Improved LayeredLayout speed in EnforceLinkFlow mode
• Behavior classes have more control over interaction through the OnMouseDown, OnMouseMove and OnMouseUp methods

What's New in MindFusion FlowChart.NET 5.3.2?

• Topological graph layout algorithm
• The DiagramItem.Query method implements relationship queries on the graph 
• PdfExporter multi-language support 
• GetProjectionRect and PointToClient methods added to DiagramView3D 
• DiagramView3D.ShowArrowHeads enables rendering of link arrowheads 
• QuickRouter now avoids link routes that include long U bends 
• LayeredLayout can straighten links that cross multiple layers in the graph 
• the Expandable property has been implemented for TreeViewNodes 
• ResizeToFitText method added to TreeViewNode 
• Behavior can be set to Pan to enable panning with the left mouse button 
• DiagramNode.SetBounds can move a node without affecting its related items

What's New in MindFusion FlowChart.NET V5?

Document/View architecture
FlowChart.NET implements the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architectural pattern in its new version 5. The MVC design pattern as applied to FlowChart.NET separates the diagram data (model) from its representation to the user (view) and controlling it by the user (controller). According to the MVC design pattern, FlowChart.NET Version 5 provides two new classes instead of the FlowChart class, namely Diagram and DiagramView.

Support for custom diagram item types
The FlowChart.NET API has been redesigned to allow for seamless integration of custom node and link types. You can define a custom item type by deriving from DiagramLink or DiagramNode. You could also derive from more specific node types such as ShapeNode or ContainerNode. New items can be added to a diagram by instantiating them and adding them to the Nodes or Links collections. To improve support for custom types, many type-specific methods have been replaced with more generic versions, e.g. FindNode instead of FindBox and FindTable.

Containers
The ContainerNode class implements diagram nodes that can function as containers for other nodes. Containers can be folded to hide their content, and unfolded to show it again. Containers can be nested one within another, without limitation on the depth of nesting.

Orthogonal graph layout
OrthogonalLayout is a secondary layout algorithm that can be used to arrange links after an initial node arrangement has already been applied. The orthogonal layout is useful when there are much more links than nodes in a graph. The algorithm strives to achieve the following criteria, while preserving as much of the initial node configuration as possible: links must not overlap; only vertical and horizontal routing lines are used; graph routing is performed with respect to the specified main layout direction; links crossings are minimized; bends are minimized.

Graphics interface
Now all drawing is done through an IGraphics interface, for which the control provides GdiGrahics, SvgGraphics and PdfGraphics implementations. Thus the files created by SvgExporter and PdfExporter can contain custom-drawn elements, which you draw either by handling custom drawing events or by implementing the Draw method in your custom item types.

API changes
Conformity with the .NET Framework naming conventions has been improved.

Main differences between FlowChart.NET Professional Standard and Professional Editions:

• Import/Export Visio XML Drawing files
• Multilevel Undo/Redo support
• Layered graph layout
• Spring-Embedder graph layout
• Grid layout
• Path finding in graphs
• A suite of auxiliary controls:
  • Overview control
  • Node shapes toolbar
  • Ruler control

MindFusion FlowChart.NET Professional Main Features

FlowChart.NET is designed in such way that you can create with it even the most complex schemes. In order to do so you combine different FlowChart.NET objects and set their properties. You can respond to the users' interaction with the flowchart objects with the events the control provides.

Below you can see a list of the most important FlowChart.NET characteristics separated in groups:

MindFusion FlowChart.NET Component

• Redistribution is royalty free
• Assembly is strong-named
• Is digitally signed
• Can be purchased with source code
• Is written in C#

MindFusion FlowChart.NET Professional User interaction

• Several user interaction modes
• Scrolling and zooming
• Panning
• Copy and paste to/from Windows clipboard
• Automatic scrolling while dragging objects with the mouse
• Alignment to grid
• Multiple selection
• Tool-tip
• Docking points can be defined for nodes
• Undo / redo support

MindFusion FlowChart.NET Professional Programming

• Programmatic access to the diagram objects and selections
• Numerous properties for customizing appearance and behavior
• Numerous utility methods
• Path finding and cycle detection
• Rich event set

MindFusion FlowChart.NET Professional Store and retrieve diagrams into/from

• Files on disk
• .NET streams
• ASCII strings
• XML documents

MindFusion FlowChart.NET Professional Output

• To display via Windows Forms
• Printing
• Print preview
• To browser via the utility WebChart class
• Export image files

MindFusion FlowChart.NET Professional Diagram elements

• More than 70 predefined node shapes
• Tables with unlimited number of rows and columns
• Control hosts allow using .NET controls as diagram nodes
• Arrows can comprise multiple segments
• Arrow segments can be straight lines or curves

MindFusion FlowChart.NET Professional Automatic layout

• Spring-Embedder graph layout
• Directional tree layout
• Radial tree layout
• Layered graph layout
• Grid layout ( FlowChart.NET Pro only)
• Automatic arrow routing

MindFusion FlowChart.NET Professional Appearance

• Nodes can display images and text
• Various text alignment styles
• Text can be laid-out in polygonal areas
• Styled HTML-like text formatting
• Customizable fonts and colors
• Ability to define custom node shapes
• Custom painting of nodes
• Shadows
• User-assigned mouse cursors
• Z order
• Rich choice of pen and brush styles
• Transparent nodes
• Invisible nodes

MindFusion FlowChart.NET Professional Behavior

• Lock diagram elements
• Read-only mode supported
• Tables can be scrolled
• Expand / collapse object hierarchies
• In-place text editing
• Dynamic positioning of arrows relative to linked nodes

MindFusion FlowChart.NET Professional Linking via arrows

• Nodes to nodes
• Tables to tables
• Nodes to tables
• Unconnected arrows

MindFusion FlowChart.NET Professional Hierarchical grouping

• Attaching objects (nodes/tables) to other objects
• Attaching objects to arrow control points
• Attaching objects to arrow segments

Auxiliary controls (FlowChart.NET Pro only)

• Overview control
• Ruler control
• Shapes toolbar