I would like to add my voice to the people who feel this was a MAJOR mistake. I have been maintaining a large database for years, and when I upgraded from 5.1 to 5.2 was shocked at the change. I have been waiting for 5.3 hoping you would add straight lines back, and just installed to find that is not the case. For my purposes, all of the “improvements” since 5.1 are irrelevant. I will be locked into 5.1 until you reconsider this or I find an alternative.
Hello and thank you for your feedback. We are continually evaluating (and re-evaluating) the product features and will happily take that into consideration.
Are there any news on this issue?
Will it be considered re-introduction of the straight lines?
Can we have it at least as model option?
Hi, it is not in our plan for the next commercial release. Other plans for future versions have not been defined yet.
Regards,
Vaclav
Kevin or Vaclav:
Could you explain why the straight line feature has not been put back into the product?
From a graphics programming standpoint, you have a point 1 attached to an anchor point on a table and you have point 2 attached to an anchor point on another table. The most simple way to draw a line between the two points is with a straight line. That is a basic graphics function.
When you introduce all these right angle lines, you now have to perform much more processing to attempt to determine optimal paths for line placement, where to insert right angle turn points, and then you draw a STRAIGHT LINE from point 1 to turn 1 and a STRAIGHT LINE from turn 1 to turn 2, etc… to turn N, and finally a STRAIGHT LINE from turn N to point 2. How can this be an improvement?
I can see no logical reason for removing the straight line feature or for why it has not been restored in the model.
Removing this feature destroyed the readability of my model and I can’t afford to spend days or weeks to manually reformat my model with hundreds of tables and hundreds of relationship lines.
My team of developers and I continue to be stuck using version 5.1 until the straight line feature is restored.
In the past, I would recommend TDM without hesitation. Now I have to give a big cautionary warning because of the problems this has caused.
Please restore this feature as soon as possible.
Hello Jeff,
thank you for your feedback.
There are many reasons why the straight line option has not been added back to the product yet. In short:
- Adding the Straight Line option with movable anchor points is more complex task than it might seem to be.
- There were other high-priority items we wanted to introduce in versions 5.3 and 5.4, incl. possibility to compare just single object with database etc.
- Development of 64-bit version of Toad Data Modeler is in progress.
The last item on the list is probably the most important now. We need to finish the 64-bit version first. Then we will define plans for future versions of Toad Data Modeler and definitely take your feedback into our considerations.
Thank you again,
Vaclav
With the announcement of TDM 6.0 64-bit Beta, I hope that you will now focus on this problem and restoring the straight lines option.
From reading this message thread, there are others that have the same problem with the newer versions of TDM and are being forced to stay at version 5.1.
Since the straight lines option is the highest ranked Idea Pond suggestion (besides 64-bit) that is “Under Review”, I would expect that this would be the focus of development for the next release.
Agree very much! Straight line is the best view for us! Please bring it back.
Hello, what is happening with the straight lines / diagonal lines? The most wanted option by far and is a deal breaker for our company.
I have been using PowerDesigner for some time which has straight lines and I think it’s absolutely superior to have straight/diagonal lines in the model. When trying Toad Data Modeler our models looks terrible and it’s more or less impossible arrange the lines in a readable manner compared to using straight lines in the model.
Is Toad going to fix this or not?
/Fredrik