Dear Thortspace … Is it possible to select a Thort, and list all its connections via Paths?

“Is it possible to select a Thort, and at the bottom of the screen list all the connections via Paths (to both groups, thorts, and thorts within groups)? Then one could see all associated Paths, select a connected thort/group, and “follow the path” of connected thorts. It would help me see, for example, a person in my lab and what projects, grants, and publications they’re connected to and essentially “walk through” their contributions to the lab.”

This question was originally asked here:

I am a research scientist, and I have begun using Thortspace to map the activities, projects, and…

Not precisely, no it isn’t. But there are a bunch of things that you can do that I think would achieve a big part of what you’re after here.

First a definition: In Thortspace, a path is a continuous series of connected path-steps of the same path-type. A path-step is a single connection of a given path-type that connects a thort to another thort, or a thortgroup to another thortgroup or a thort to a thortgroup.

I’ll start by saving creating a new arrangement (so that I can leave the current layout in tact as it is).

See other articles about arrangements: here:

(8) How to … store the same set of thorts in multiple alternative Arrangements and switch…

and here:

Dear Thortspace … a question about ranking / prioritization

Now, in desktop versions of Thortspace, and while in my new arrangement, if you hover the mouse over a path-step, the entire path will highlight.

In desktop versions of Thortspace, if you hover the mouse over a path-step, the entire path will highlight.

Then if you right-click on the path-step, you will select all the thorts and groups that are connected by that the path which that path-step is part of.

Now Control +Right-Click (also Control + Right-Click on Mac if you have a Control key or something that you can map to a Control key — if not try Command + Right-Click) in some empty space on the sphere, and all the selected thorts will move to that place.

I will save this as an arrangement.

Next, I will create another new arrangement and then do the same thing with the yellow path.

Now I have 3 arrangements — the original, and then one arrangement which turns each of the paths into a group:

Animated Gif shows transitioning between 3 arrangements

Next I will create a fourth arrangement and click the “Group By” button at the bottom of Categories tab:

This puts all the thorts on the sphere into groups according to their category in the currently applying category set.

For more about categories and category sets see:

(4) How to … apply Categories to thorts in Thortspace

and:

How and why to … use Category Sets in Thortspace

Initially the groups will be spread around the sphere, but I’ll bring my two groups together. Now I have four arrangements:

• Original
• Group by the blue path
• Group by the yellow path
• Group by the categories

Animated Gif shows transitioning between four arrangements

Combinations or arrangements and viewpoints can be saved into Journeys. See:

(10) How to … Present and Publish the thinking you’ve created in Thortspace (Part 1)

I hope some of the above goes some way towards address your requirements. Please let us know what you think. Many thanks for the great questions and comments!

Andrew is a Product Designer at Thortspace, the world’s first collaborative 3D mind mapping software. Breakthrough collaborative thinking, whenever and wherever you need it most. More stories here.