Feature request: Basic geometry operations for Edges

[denis60111]

#413849085 Application: diagram.ly, mxGraph JS 1.10.0.5

In order to be able to use mxGraph as basic vector editing software, implementation of essential geometry operations and functions is needed:

• Merging of Edge objects having spatially touched start/end points, that creates new Edge object;
• Splitting of Edge geometries at arbitrary point, that creates two new Edge objects;
• Conversion of arbitrary Edge geometry to Vertex geometry, that turns Edge linestrings into polygon.

[davidjgraph]

This is outside of the scope of what mxGraph does, it's not a general purpose vector editing tool.

[denis60111]

David,

We suggested this capability because we believe this will make mxGraph more useful and we think they would be simple to implement.

For example, adding these basic geometry features will facilitate using mxGraph itself to draw elements to include in stencils rather than having to use some third party application.

Other common uses cases are:

• basic sketching;
• annotation of photos, floor plans, another images.

[davidjgraph]

Again, this is well outside of the scope of mxGraph as a product and we've never had any other requests for general vector editing functionality. mxGraph is a graph visualization library, that is, the interactive display of vertex-edge graphs. We have to define a specific scope of the product and, obviously, arbitrarily letting that scope creep would very quickly end up with lots of functionality, all done badly.

That said, mxGraph is a developer library for this very reason, it provides great flexibility for extending its functionality. The whole point is it provides a core of relevant functionality, but application specific features, which this clearly is, must be implemented by the user.