Connecting pins on XY Maps with lines

AppSheet AppSheet Q&A
1

Hi all,

I’m busy building a Cable Survey App based on XY Maps and floorplans/blueprints.

Question 1: Please could someone advise if it is possible to connect the pins on my XY Maps with lines?> Question 2: If Q1 is possible; would the lines be linked to the pins i.e. if I ‘hide/filter’ a pin the line would ‘hide/filter’ too?

I’m trying to achieve something like this:

2X_3_3dca92013386d171fedcea08eebed9c1a02f5ae1.jpeg
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Thanks in advance

2

Jake_Naude:

ould someone advise if it is possible to connect the pins on my XY Maps with

I’m sorry, drawing lines on a map is currently not supported. You could however, use actions to generate a series of points to give an illusion of a line and color those points a different color.

If that seems like an acceptable solution you can reference this app as a guide: How to Dynamically Create Smart Areas/Boundaries on a Map

1 Like
3

Actually, we can use the drawing type, unlock the image, draw lines on it, and then lock it…
unfortunately you can’t like zoom in on it, and ave any kind of precision.

4

Hi @Rich,

Thanks for getting back on this one.

I had actually come across your Dynamic Areas on a Map before - nice work!

“Using actions to generate a series of points to give an illusion of a line…” sounds interesting. Do you know if we’re limited to using the map locator pin as our imitation shape or could I use smaller shapes, say a dot or very small circle?

Cheers…

5

Thanks @Grant_Stead,

In this instance I’m using a URL image on an XY column type and am unable to annotate the floor plan image.

The solution I was hoping for would need to be dynamic/programmed as I have 100s of 1000s of these lines to draw.

Cheers…

6

You are limited to the location pin imitation shape, but could setup formatting rules to show different icons in those shapes if desired.

7

I am wondering if something like this would be accceptable

2X_1_1c25694ae7d5d5eee77fbebceaadc789b25ba3a3.png

8

Hi @Rich,

We’re thinking along similar lines… Here’s what I have so far… It would just have been nice to have the coloured lines to connect the pins… Cheers…

2X_1_1cefd509e81418a1ddb8a243f70fcf7833d1ba7f.jpeg
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Hi @Rich,

Sorry… I was too quick on my reply and just saw what you were suggesting about:

2X_6_67bf1db592013883d18ae75cea268b29ca93ff52.jpeg

Yes, your suggestion looks promising… Is this easy enough to set up…?

I have lots of lines on lots of maps… Cheers…

10

I wouldn’t say its the easiest to setup :). But you will be much more fluent in using actions if you have success in setting this up :).

You could possibly set it up like this:

  1. When you enter a new pin, also give the option to select the previous pin in the path. This makes an easy association to draw a path.

  2. Then when that new pin form is saved there could be a grouped action called on form save. This group action would have multiple child actions that would calculate the the pins that would represent the “line”. You could have 4 actions here that calculate the 20%, 40%, 60%, 80% pins that would show up. You could go more granular if you wanted to, depends how you want it to look.

  3. The final consideration you would need to solve for is what to do if you end up editing and moving a survey point. To solve for this you will need to create another grouped action like above in that this action would have all of the child actions from above, but the first child action would be to delete the existing pins if a line was already in place. Then makes sure the app cleans up the lines when they are no longer needed anymore.

11

Thanks @Rich,

I have a few use cases parked up ahead of this one but I’m very keen to give this a go.

Thanks for the guidance. I’ll let you know how I get on.

Cheers…