Frame
A frame eases the readability and layout of graphs, by visually groupingobjects in that graph and letting you easily move all those objects together.
For instance, frames can be named and coloured so that the graph’s structure comes out clearly when taking an overview, which is a great help as the complexity of a graph increases.
They can also be annotated and thus function as a documentation tool for explaining why some nodes were set up in a specific way.
Appearance
Depending on the position of the mouse cursor or whether it is part of a selection, a frame presents itself in different visual styles to let you know if and how you can interact with it.
By default, the frame is a rectangle with rounded corners filled with the color selected in its Frame Color property. A darker shade of that color is applied on the frame’s outline.
The title set in the Title property rests in grey on the frame’s top left corner.
When hovering the top of the frame, a header bar is displayed.
The frame may be moved by dragging that header bar or its title.
When selected, the title and outline of the frame are highlighted in white. The outline gets thicker.
Creating frames
Frames may be added in any graph type, in any of the following ways:
Press Spacebar in the Graph view to open the Node menu, and select the ‘Frame’ item in the list.
Type ‘frame’ in the search field to surface the item and find it more quickly.
Framing selections
If a selection is active in a graph when a frame is created, that frame will be automatically adjusted to fully include the selected objects.
With that in mind, creating frames using a keyboard shortcut makes it even faster to frame content in a graph.
Manipulating frames
Frames may be panned by dragging its title or header bar, and resized by dragging any of its borders or corners.
The illustration highlights the interaction zones for panning (blue) and resizing (yellow).
Grid snapping
By default, a frame snaps to the medium grid when moved or resized.
Hold the Ctrl (Windows) / Cmd (macOS) key to shift this snapping to the small grid for finer adjustments.
Properties
When a frame is selected, the following properties are available in the Properties dock:
The Title resting on the top left of the frame. Its visibility of the title can be toggled on or off by using the Title Visible property.
The size of the title can be locked at a minimum screen size so its stays readable when zooming out of the graph. You may do this by checking the ‘Frame titles’ option in the Information drop down of the Graph view toolbar.
The Description is an optional, additional piece of text that may be used to annotate the frame’s content.
The text can be formatted using HTML tags. This formatting is toggled by clicking the
Learn more in the Description section below.
The Frame Color is used to fill the frame in the Graph view. Use the color picker to select any color.
The color’s alpha channel control the opacity of the frame, where a value of 0 means the frame is fully transparent.
Description
A frame can be annotated with a text that will be placed inside the frame. The text is aligned to the left and starts in the frame’s top left corner. Use the frame’s Description property to edit that text.
Standard
The Title is shown in a bold font resting on the top left of the frame. The visibility of the title can be toggled on or off.
Its size can be locked at a minimum screen size so its stays readable when zooming out of the graph. You may do this by checking the ‘Frame titles’ option in the Information drop down of the Graph view toolbar.
HTML formatting
Text can be formatted using HTML tags in the frame’s Description property. Formatting must be enabled by using the
You may copy and paste this sample in the frame’s Description property to test this feature for yourself:
<h2>HTML formatting</h2>
<p>This is a description formatted using <b>HTML markup</b>.</p>
<p>Formattig text makes it more <i>pleasant</i>, <font color="#CC8822">impactful</font> and <code>clearly structured</code> for users.</p>
<p><img src="image_filepath"> Images are also supported! <sup>How nice!</sup></p>
Here is a list of useful tags for formatting text:
| table 0-row-2 1-row-2 2-row-2 3-row-2 4-row-2 5-row-2 6-row-2 7-row-2 8-row-2 9-row-2 10-row-2 11-row-2 | |
|---|---|
| Bold | <b>…</b> |
| Italic | <i>…</i> |
| Color | <font color=“#4A567C”>…</font> |
| Paragraph | <p>…</p> |
| Line break | <br> |
| Headings | <h1>…</h1>, <h2>…</h2>, etc. |
| Image | <img src=“{path_to_image}”> |
| Superscript | <sub>…</sub> |
| Unordered list (bullets) | <ul> <li>…</li> <li>…</li> </ul> |
| Ordered list (numbers) | <ol> <li>…</li> <li>…</li> </ol> |
| Code | <code>…</code> |
Inclusion rules
An object is considered included in a frame if it meets its inclusion rule. These rules vary according to the object and special case. They are listed below.
The yellow symbol in each illustration represents the point or area that needs to be entirely within a frame’s bounds for an object to be included in that frame.
The center point is used.
Badges, connectors and information displayed below the node are all ignored.
Nodes may be of different heights, depending on their number of input or output connectors.
As connectors are displayed or hidden, added or removed, the node’s height adjusts from its center.
Therefore, the location of a node’s center point should not change until it is deliberately moved.
The center point of the host node is used.
The host node is the node that a node is docked into.
If multiple nodes are docked into a chain, the host node of the last docked node is used for the entire chain.
Badges, connectors and information displayed below the node are all ignored.
The center point of the Dot is used.
Connectors, portal icons and names are all ignored.
The center point of the comment’s bounding box (yellow outline) is used.
Parented comments do not follow the inclusion rules for comments.
Instead, the center point of the parent node is used.
Badges, connectors and information displayed below the node are all ignored.
The tip of the pin icon is used.
The bounding box of the nested frame is used.
This means a nested frame must be entirely within another frame’s bounds to be included in the latter.
The title is ignored.
Fit size to content
As you make adjustments in your graph, a frame may not be gracefully adjusted to its content anymore. In this case, it is possible to automatically adjust the position and size of the frame so it adjusts to the span of its content, with a padding of one medium grid cell.
To do this, click RMB on the frame’s title or header bar – see Appearance – and select the Fit Size to Content option in the contextual menu.
Fitting the description text
If the frame has a description, its is adjusted to make use of any empty space next to the description, if possible.
If no included object can be fit into that space, the frame’s height is adjusted further to accommodate the description.
Auto-expand
As the graph grows, the frames’ content may need to be rearranged. Nodes may shift to make room for additions or content may need to be spaced out more to promote readability.
To facilitate these adjustments, it is possible to automatically expand a frame when moving included objects: hold Shift at any point while moving an object to have the frame borders automatically adjust to keep that object within their bounds.
This also applies to selections that may include multiple objects. In that case, each object’s host frame will be adjusted simultaneously.
If an object is not fully enclosed by the frame’s bounds but still satisfies its inclusion rule, the frame is adjusted to fully enclose it with an additional padding of one medium grid cell as soon as the Shift key is pressed.
