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I would like to use an arrow style that's a simple perpendicular line but finding that it overlaps with the shape it's pointing at. Is there any way to adjust the spacing while still keeping the line linked to the target shape?



To illustrate a bit more in the following diagram the A->C arrow is very clear but the A-|B arrow is hard to see because the arrow overlaps with the rectangle around B. I can simulate the visual behavior by not connecting the line to the target shape eg the line from C to D but then I have to reformat everything if I move D. Is there any way to adjust the spacing automatically? I guess this is kind of an external padding but it seems to me that the default behavior for this arrow type should be to give a little space.



Hi Noah

Thanks you for posting in the Community! Unfortunately there is not currently a way to add padding to line connections in Lucidchart.

However we're always looking for ways to improve Lucidchart and your feedback is the best way for us to do that. We encourage anyone else who’s interested in this to upvote this post and share any additional details about your use case or what you’d like to see in this experience. For more information about how we manage feedback in this community, please take a look at this post.

To workaround this you can increase the width of the line and the endpoint so that is it easier to see the connection. 

7itzNxvrdnYMzzizWfjlCQ.png

Additionally you can group two shapes and make it a custom shape to create this look. To do so:

  1. Select a shape and add it to the canvas.
  2. Change the line and shape to have no fill.
  3. Select another shape and add it to the canvas. Increase the size of the first shape to fit around the second shape.gceHEMRLKVkF8JkrSPOBFw.png
  4. With both shapes selected right-click and select group and then select "Add to Custom Shape Library" and select a library. 
  5. You can then use the shape in your document and connect the lines to outside border of your custom shape. 

Below is a gif of this process. You can also check out our Add and style lines in Lucidchart help center article for additional details. Hope this helps!

J0S9G7mOCq7on5OhQi7LPg.gif


Thank you for your prompt response.