Visio-like connector tools

[Aaron O'Toole]

Hello,

I'm a robotics engineer. I've recently picked up inkscape and started learning it a bit. I'm looking for a tool for drawing diagrams and also drawing pictures that convey mathematical ideas. So far inkscape has been good. There is one missing feature that is keeping it from being great for me though. That is the ability to draw circuit diagram similar to what visio is capable of. There is the connector tool, but only being able to connect one connector to the center of an object isn't enough. I need the ability to connect several connectors to the edges of object.

I'm attaching a random picture from google images that shows off some advanced features that would be great. I realize in the picture the connectors attach to children objects (terminals), but that isn't important - the main idea being I can move an object with multiple connectors and the connectors update automatically. The connectors could just as well be connected to the edge of the larger objects. Although even if I had to have children objects to use for connection anchors I would be happy, but connections currently seem to lose their anchor information when objects are grouped in inkscape.

I will still be using inkscape for 2D drawings, but if this feature was present I would not have to use any other drawing programs (I'm using Libre Draw for diagrams and would like to only use inkscape). With this feature missing I hesitate to suggest inkscape to co-workers because I know it is a feature we all need.

Thanks for listening,
Aaron

[Aaron O'Toole (christian-ferraro-mech)]

...let me know if I should provide an example of the problem of anchor information being lost when objects are grouped. It just dawned on me that this is could be considered a bug and its resolution might give me what I want.