I’m thinking through a kind of activity model or IDEF0-style diagram in Flying Logic. I’ve got the different levels of detail grouped so that I can collapse or expand groups to reveal the right level of detail. I really like how groups work in FL for IDEF0, because when you collapse them, they look like their own boxes with inputs and outputs.
I’d love to be able to have a “reference” box, like I’d do with a cell reference in Excel like $A$2, to mirror the text to another box, but allow that second box’s own arrows and class. For example, one of the things I like about thinking in IDEF0 is thinking through the classes, like from outputs to inputs when an activity produces an output that is then used as an input to another activity. It would be nice to have a “mirror” of the text in one box in the second box, so if I rename the first box, that change would be reflected everywhere that mirror or reference is used.
In this example, notice how Product Roadmaps on the left comes in as an Input, but in this group called Week 2 is used as an enabler. (In another part of the diagram, the Product Roadmaps will be used as a constraint or an input.) Also notice how the output from one box, called Alternatives, is used as an input to a later activity (off the edge of the screenshot).
I can get half of this functionality using edge annotations, because the annotations are on the lines themselves (which makes sense for IDEF0) and they are visible whenever and wherever the line itself is visible. But since I can’t apply classes to the annotations or change them, and that’s half the value of what I’m looking for, using them isn’t good enough.