Struggling with orthogonal line routing

[sparkyjf]

Hi there,

I’m pretty new to OmniGraffle - loving it so far, but I am struggling to create a pretty basic diagram. I’m open to the idea that I’m probably going about it all wrong, but I’ve tried to get my head around orthogonal lines, routing, midpoints and magnets without actually getting the results I want.

At this stage I’m creating a simple part of a diagram - however in time it will expand into a much more complex one with multiple canvases - as a result I want to get this right now or I’ll struggle with it later on.

I am creating a simplistic block diagram of a network. Right now I have one rectangle representing a switch, and 5 rectangles representing network devices. All connect back to the switch. I had hoped to get all 5 devices connected in a simple “tree” type diagram with neat orthogonal lines all overlaid and routed back to the switch. The first 3 have gone perfectly, and then the 4th and 5th simple go anywhere except where I want them. I’m using rectangles right now with the default magnet in the center - I tried creating a magnet on the edge of COM5 as shown in the screenshot but to no avail. Please can someone help me - I feel like I’m missing something rather basic…

Happy to upload other screenshots or try anything else anyone might recommend. Thanks in advance!

[lanettetest]

I would select all of the rectangles in the diagram and set the magnets in the properties inspector to 2 magnets: E, W if what you want is the lines entering only on the sides as shown below. If I didn’t understand your intent, please update with an example of what you would like the lines to do.

Thanks,
Lanette

[sparkyjf]

Working perfectly - I had a feeling it would be something beautifully simple like that, but I didn’t know what. Thank you so much for your help, and fast reply to my question!