on-screen overlay connections ?

<
posted to microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.drawing about six days ago, and
no response there, so thought I'd try here ... thanks ...


Hi,

I have a situation where I am going to need to show, on the desktop, or on
top of whatever else is on the desktop, some "connection lines" between
objects in different windows.

Through careful study of Bob Powell's always excellent on-line resources,
some experimentation, etc. I have been able to draw lines on the desktop,
even get "hit detection" on them (although that's not as important in my
application). I ended up using (I believe it was from one of Bob Powell's
tutorials) a transparent form filling the screen as a drawing surface as a
temporary approximation of what I wanted to do.

The problem I see is this : where I really want to go is to have lines that
automatically re-route around other screen windows (via straight lines only
or beziers or arcs or whatever). And it seems clear to me that at the point
you had many "connections" visible (in a variety of colors) and needing to
update as various windows, some belonging to the app, some not, are moved
.... you've got some major code to write ... test ... My intuitive sense is
that routing algorithms are non-trivial.

This functionality, imho, is more than I "can bite-off and chew" in terms of
development resources and priorities. So that leads to 3rd. party component
solutions : so far the only candidates I can see are Nevron or VGDotNet,
both expensive and "heavyweight." And more full-featured than I require. I
would lean toward VGDotNet simply because I have enjoyed Frank Hileman's
presence here so much.

So, I thought I would ask if anyone has seen some 3rd. party component that
has some of the functionality I would need but at a price point under US
$3-400. And, ideally, a component that could be "pruned" at compile time to
omit unused funtionality it might provide. A tall order ? Maybe.

Thanks for your time !

best, Bill


.

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