how to draw tubes not crossing

Question

I'd like to draw heating schems with burner, solar pannels, heating devices, etc.

Therefore I need many connections like water tubes. sometimes those will cross each other -but they are not connected.  How can I draw those bridges ?

how can I draw this with yed or ist there any better freeware avaliable

 

here some examples how other solve this crossings w/o connection

1.) tube with bridge:

http://www.prisma-heizung.de/uploads/pics/9020.gif

2.) tube with thin outer lines - so you can see crossings not connected:

http://www.grin.com/object/document.139876/4f08602d5ec5b76fc42a9a9db10d42c9_LARGE.png

3.) Tube interrupted at crossings (blue line):

http://www.vier-im-pott.de/solarthermie/images/sim_00.gif

wich one is easy to handle with yed without loosing possibility to move objects arround

answers are also welcome in german language

Thank you very much

Comments

Hmm, seems like your images "did not make it". Please try again to add images, otherwise it is very hard to understand your problem.

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Thank you very much for the links to examples.

Answer 1

Seems to me you are looking for yEd's bridge feature. To activate bridges, go to "File" -> "Preferences", switch to tab "Display" and choose a "Bridge Style" that matches the desired visuaklization for edge crossings. Options "Bridge Scaling" and "Crossing Determination Mode" can be used to fine tune bridge behavior.

In der deutschen Version finden sich die oben erwähnten Optionen unter "Datei" -> "Einstellungen" auf dem Reiter "Anzeige". Mit "Brückenstil" kann die Darstellung ausgewählt werden, "Brückenskalierung" und "Kreuzungsbestimmung" ermöglichen weitere Feinabstimmung.