Feature request: link polarities ON arrows

[kleemax]

The current possibilities in Vensim with respect to positioning the link polarity often make it necessary to move the link polarity in order to be clear about which polarity belongs to which arrow. CLDs become much more legible if the link polarities are not next to the arrow but ON the arrow. Some softwares already offer this possibility (e.g. Miro, Omni-Graffle). Typically, the arrow is briefly interrupted where the link polarity is placed, i.e. the text field of the polarity has a white background which is on top of the arrow.
Other possibilities could be experimented with, e.g. the circle at the handle of the arrow that is visible when the arrow tool or the move tool is selected could be enlarged to hold the link polarity (and be always visible, also when other tools are selected).
Generally, the arrow handle could be a good position, because then the polarity could also be moved on the arrow with the handle.
Since not all users may prefer the option of link polarity on the arrow, it is probably advisable to retain the old options and just add this option in the respective drop-down menu. Ideally, this new option could also be selected as default in the vensim settings for those users who prefer it.

[kleemax]

This is actually almost possible already, because in the Vensim settings, its possible to set the distance of the polarity to 0. Then the link polarity is on teh arrow, if the setting for the position is set to one of the handle options. The only problem is that the background of the polarity is transparent and thus the arrow and the link polarity overlap optically. The only thing I would need is a white background for the link polarity. Maybe its possible to set this by manually editing a settings file somewhere? The only problem with this remaining work-around could be that the dark-mode may not work? I mean the background may not switch automatically from white to black when turning on dark mode?

[Administrator]

I'll look into this. It might be as simple as clearing the background from the polarity marking when drawing on the screen.

[Administrator]

This will be in the next release.

[kleemax]

I see that you have now implemented this feature and that it can be selected as the last option in the list, when using the arrow tool.
!! THANK YOU SO MUCH !!
Questions (if you want to make my life even better):
Is there a way to change the Position of multiple link polaraities at the same time?
Is it possible to make a default setting for this in Vensim (possibly by manually editing some file that holds vensims settings)
Is it possible to make a defaultl setting for a model or a view?

[kleemax]

I have now discovered that my first wish above (changing multiple link polarities at the same time has also been implemented:
To admins: thanks so much for implementing this!
For others reading this: When you select multiple arrows and then go to the bottom sketch toolbar and select the tool for setting the link polarity at the very bottom of the menu there is now a submenu called position. The last option is for having the polarities always on arrows. Note that the result can only be seen on lock-sketch mode (first tool button in the second toolbar from the top), because in move mode, you need the handles to move and resize arrows. In Lock sketch mode the arrows appear where the handle can be seen in move mode.