How do I control the Position of Group Nodes on Import?

Question

Hi Thomas:

yEd does a Great Job of importing Excel Information. I have developed a sophisticated way of Processing the Data so that the Imported Results are Nearly Perfect.

The Groups and Nested Groups all work well. The organization Inside the Group Nodes is Generally fine.

Once I do an Import that I like, I'd like to select the coordinates for each Import Group and then redo the Import.

For instance, I have 8 first level groups (# 1 - 8). They all import just fine. The problem is that yEd puts them in the wrong numeric Order.

When I move the Groups, all the Edges are messed-up. there are a ton of them.

So far, I just live with the Random Order.

Professionally, it is Very Embarrassing L:(
Please help/

Cheers, Bill

Answer 1

Unfortunately, you cannot set the coordinates for group nodes. The position of a group node is determined by the bounds of its child nodes (plus the group node's insets).

In other words, to place a group node at a specific location, you would have to place its child nodes at specific locations which then result in the calculated group bounds amounting to the desired location.

Comments

Then, How do I define the location of the place for a child node upon Import

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Actually, I recommend not explicitly specifying positions but using a layout algorithm to arrange the imported diagram.

However, if you rather explicitly specify positions, you need to add a column for your nodes' x-coordinate and a column for your nodes' y-coordinate and use a properties mapper configuration that maps your coordinates to node 'X' and 'Y'.