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I have a problem that seems like it must come up for anyone using layers.  I have a diagram with several groups of shapes. Each group is on a layer so I can hide/show any combination of groups.  Shapes in each group (layer) can connect to shapes in any of the other groups.  Naturally a line between shapes only makes sense if both the source and target shapes are visible.   


Let's say I have Shape A in group 1.  It can connect to Shape B in group 2 Shape C in group 3 and Shape D in group 4.  No matter which layer I put the lines in there will be situations where connectors are left "hanging" with no connection.  The only way to make this work with layers is to have a layer for each possible group to group relationship.  For 7 groups that means 21 layers (all the possible combinations of 2 groups from a total of 7 groups). As I'm likely to have more than 7 groups this is not a viable approach.


What is needed is for connectors to automatically hide unless both their starting and ending shapes are visible which seems like it should be a default behavior.  Typically connectors are only meaningful if they connect things. 


Is there some other way to handle this I'm missing? 

Hi Michael 


This is an excellent feature request. It seems like you like connection endpoints tied logically to to visible layers to make it more intuitive to work with lines on different layers. With this being said if you totally ungroup all those items and then layer them I could get this to work with likely a more simple use case than yours. I probably am not taking all of your factors into account here so is there a screenshot suited for this forum you can post to give us a better idea of how to reproduce this. 


Will try to create a screenshot for you when I get some time but it's pretty simple to reproduce.


1) Create 3 groups of shapes 2 shapes in each group 


2) Create lines between shapes within each group.  Create lines from at least one shape in each group to one shape in the other two groups.


3) Put each group in its own layer .


5) If you hide  group A by hiding its layer the lines to Groups B and C will be visible but won't connect to anything on one side.  So you can put them in the same layer as Group A.  But now what if Group A is showing but Group B is hidden.  Once again the lines are there but they don't connect to anything visible. 


So you'd have to have a layer for Group A to B connections  a layer for Group B to C connections and one for Group A to C.  You'd have to hide the lines layer manually whenever you hid either of the Groups it relates to.  Even if you wanted to take this very clumsy approach you'd need a layer for every combination of two shape layers.  For 7 groups that's 21 layers for lines.  For 8 groups 28 layers.  9 groups 36 layers. 


I have about 10 groups now.  


 


I have two suggestions for dealing with this:


1) Native line behavior (optional) that hides it if the shape at either end is not visible


2) Less elegant and clunkier solution:  use conditional formatting to make line color same as background if number of connected shapes is less than 2.  Right now conditional formatting can't be applied to connector lines as far as I can see.  Also - the number of connected shapes property would have to take into account whether the shapes are visible.  (Otherwise when you hide a shape's layer if Lucid still considers it connected the formatting wouldn't change). 


Clearly solution 1 is much better.


Hi Michael


I was able to reproduce your use case and while it is not currently supported in the product your suggestions for a solution have been noted. My apologies for the inconvenience.


Thanks!


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