yED : Why cannot a simple line be drawn, but always as a connector ?

Question

Why cannot a simple line be drawn, but always as a connector between some objects / entities ?

Regards,

Answer 1

Because yEd is an editor for graphs (see Wikipedia for a formal definition) and in a graph there can be no free connections. The "restriction" to graphs is essential for many of yEd's features (most notably its layout algorithms).

The common workaround is to use invisible nodes (using "No Color" as "Fill Color" and "Line Color") to fake free connections.