Node Properties

Figure 1. Node Properties

A node is the basic item that shows up in the toolbox. It is the base class for all neurons and other draggable items like graphics, text, and subsystems. Therefore, all items that inherit from node also contain all of its properties. The following is a list of those properties.

Alignment
Sets the text alignment style.
Default value: CenterMiddle.
Acceptable Values:

LeftJustifyTop
LeftJustifyMiddle
LeftJustifyBottom
RightJustifyTop
RightJustifyMiddle
RightJustifyBottom
CenterTop
CenterMiddle
CenterBottom

AutoSize
This property allows to adjust node size to picture size or adjust picture size to node size.
Default value: None.
Acceptable Values:

None: Does not autosize the node.
ImageToNode: Stretches the node image to the size of this node.
NodeToImage: Sets the size of this node to be the same size as the associated image.
NodeToText: Sets the size of the node so that all of the text can be seen.

Back Mode
If applied to a node or a link, it determines whether the background remains untouched or if the background is filled with the current background color before the text.

Figure 2. Back mode demonstration

Default value: Transparent.
Acceptable Values:

Transparent: The background for text is transparent.
Opaque: The background for text uses the background color.

Dash Style
Sets the pen style used to draw the border of the node.
Default value: Solid.
Acceptable Values:

Solid
Dash
Dot
DashDot
DashDotDot
Custom

Draw Color
Sets the pen color used to draw the border of the node.
Default value: Black.
Acceptable Values: Any Color from the drop-down box.

Draw Width
Sets the width of the line used to draw the border of the node.
Default value: 1.
Acceptable Values:Any Positive Integer value.

Fill Color
Sets the pen color used to draw the inside of the node.
Default value: Different for each node.
Acceptable Values: Any Color from the drop-down box.

Font
Sets the font used for the text in the node.
Default value: Arial 14 point.
Acceptable Values: Any font that can be configured using the font editor dialog.

Gradient
Determines whether the fill color of the node uses a gradient. If this is true then the node is filled using a gradient that starts with the fill color and goes to the gradient color using the gradient mode to specify the direction of the fill.

Figure 3. A gradient filled node.

Default value: No Gradient.

Gradient Color
Sets the color used fill a node with a gradient. This value is only used if Gradient is set to true.
Default value: Different for each node.
Acceptable Values: Any Color from the drop-down box.

Gradient Mode
Determines the direction that a gradient will be filled in the node.
Default value: BackwardDiagonal.
Acceptable Values:

Horizontal
Vertical
ForwardDiagonal
BackwardDiagonal

Image
This property allows the user to add a image to the node. The way the image is displayed is determined by the Autosize feature. Once an image has been added the original image file is no longer needed. The binary data for the image is stored in the configuration file. This means that you can put an image in your diagram and you do not have to worry about distributing the linked jpeg or gif file along with your project files. Since it is made a part of the project then when someone else opens it on a new computer that does not have those image files they will still appear correctly in the diagram.
Default value: No Image.

Location
This is a read-only property that tells you the (x, y) coordinates of this node. If you want to change the location of the node you need to select it on the diagram and drag it to a new location.
Default value: Different for each node.
Acceptable Values: Any Color from the drop-down box.

Shadow Color
If a shadow has been specified then this determines the color used for the shadow.
Default value: Black.
Acceptable Values: Any Color from the drop-down box.

Shadow Size
If a shadow has been specified then this tells how many pixels to use for the width and height when drawing the shadow.
Default value: (0, 0).
Acceptable Values: Any positive integers.

Shadow Style
Determines the whether to use a shadow for the node and if so then where the shadow should be located.

Figure 4. Node shadow positions.

Default value: None.
Acceptable Values:

None
RightBottom
RightTop
LeftTop
LeftBottom

Shape
Determines the geometrical shape of this node.

Figure 5. Node shapes.

Default value: None.
Acceptable Values: See figure 5.

Shape Orientation
This property allows rotating some node shapes (not all shapes). Only 4 angle values are accepted: 0°, 90°, 180°, 270°.
This property has no effect if the shape is one of the following:

North Triangle
South Triangle
East Triangle
West Triangle
RectEdge Etched
RectEdge Raised
RectEdge Sunken
Predefined Process
Internal Storage
MultiDocument
Extract
Sequential Access Storage

Figure 6. Node shape orientations.

Default value: Angle0.
Acceptable Values:

Angle0
Angle90
Angle180
Angle270

Size
This is a read-only property that tells you the (width, height) size of this node. If you want to change the size of the node you need to select it on the diagram and then drag the edges to make it bigger.
Default value: Different for each node.
Acceptable Values: Any Color from the drop-down box.

Text Color
Specifies the color of the text in the node.
Default value: Black.
Acceptable Values: Any Color from the drop-down box.

Text Margin
Sets the size of the margins for the text of the node. The margin is expressed in percentage of the size of the node.

Figure 7. Text margins.

Default value: (0, 0).
Acceptable Values: Positive integer values.

Transparent
Determines whether the node transparent or not.
Default value: False.