A connection, which is a line connecting two port instances in the schematic, is added by first clicking on the first port instance and then on the second port instance, or by dragging with the mouse from the first to the second port instance.
Since port instances are rather small objects in a schematic at 100% zoom, it may be difficult to find the accurate mouse cursor position where one should click to start the connection. To aid in finding this position, a blue square is shown around the port instance when the mouse cursor is over it, and the name of the port is shown beside it.
After having clicked a port instance, the schematic editor is in connect mode, which means that a line is continuously drawn between the port instance and the mouse cursor, and that if you click another port instance, a connection will be created between the two port instances. If you click somewhere else in the schematic when in connect mode, the connection will be cancelled. It is not possible to create open-ended connections in RTflow.
Connections are only allowed between an output port and an input port, and the two ports must have compatible types. If you try to connect two incompatible port instances, for example two input ports, then an error message will appear in red text by the mouse cursor. To resolve type incompatibility problems, it may be necessary to insert a type conversion block - see the documentation for the Bool, Int and Real blocks.
An output port instance can be attached to many connections. If there are two or more connections emerging from the same output port instance, then there will be one or more points, called connection points, where the paths of two connections split. These points are marked in the schematic with a black dot. The set of connections emerging from the same port may appear as one single connection net, but it is important to remember that these are actually all individual connections. For example, if one of those connections is selected and deleted, the other connections will not be affected.
An input port instance can be attached to only one connection. If a connection is made to an input port instance that is already attached to a connection, then the previous connection will be deleted.
When the new connection is added, it will be given a connection name that is unique in the schematic. By default, the name is hidden, but it can be made visible by clicking the Show Connection Names toolbar button or by pressing N. See the Renaming an Element section for details on how to change the connection name and on the rules governing what names are allowed.