Best way to connect distant nodes

Question

Hi all,

I have a large graph with many groups and I want to connect two nodes far down in the hierarchy of two different groups. Of course, I could open all relevant groups and draw an edge just as usual, but in my case, it is barely possible to have both affected nodes on the screen at the same time.

Is there any other possibility than drawing the edge the usual way? For example:

- opening two views of the same graph and dragging an edge from one to the other?

- select the first node, kind of "start edge here", navigate through the graph, select second node, "end edge here"

- or any other way to connect two nodes which can hardly be seen at the same time in the view?

Regards

 

Marcus.

Answer 1

Unfortunately, there is currently no good way to solve this problem in yEd.
The only alternative to creating an edge in the usual way would be editing the GraphML file in a text editor.

Answer 2

Try using a node to hold the end of the edge as you move across the graph.

1. Add a temporary node (any shape) to the graph.
2. Add an edge from the first node to the temporary node.
3. Navigate through the graph, moving the temporary node as you go, until you get near the second node.
4. Select the edge.
5. Move the edge from the temporary node to the second node.
6. Delete the temporary node.

 

Comments

This is a nice idea, unfortunately it does not work for OP's use case where the two nodes that have to be connected reside in two different folder nodes (i.e. closed group nodes). While it is possible to "move" the temporary node from the source node's parent folder into the target node's parent folder by dragging the corresponding item in yEd's structure view, once it is inside the target node's parent folder the temporary node will not have an edge anymore which you can assign to the actual target node. (The edge will now connect the two folder nodes.)