A computer aided design (CAD) application can be used by a designer to create an assembly drawing that may include a number of components. The designer can identify the components of the assembly drawing by attaching each component to an identifier, such as a circular outline including a label, e.g., a letter or number. Such identifiers are sometimes referred to as “balloons”. An assembly drawing can include, for example, a nut and bolt assembly. The designer can identify the components of the assembly drawing by attaching a balloon to a component in the assembly drawing that represents the head of the nut, attaching a second balloon to a component that represents the thread of the nut, and attaching a third balloon to component that represents the bolt. The balloons can be attached to the components by lines, sometimes referred to as “leaders” or “leaders lines”. The process of identifying components of an assembly drawing by attaching the components to balloons by leaders can be referred to as “ballooning”.
The ballooning process can be labor intensive, requiring the creation and placement of balloons, connecting the balloons by leaders to components in the assembly drawing, and further manipulating positions of the balloons in order to achieve a substantially legible and decipherable assembly drawing. The latter step can involve tedious manipulating of the positions of the balloons, and/or changing which components the balloons are attached to (i.e., the balloon-component pairings), such that leaders do not intersect. As the number of components of an assembly drawing increases, the time and effort required for ballooning also increases, and manipulating the positions of balloons to achieve a substantially legible and decipherable assembly drawing can become more difficult.
Some conventional CAD applications create and place balloons automatically for the designer, and attach balloons to components of an assembly drawing. Leaders attaching the balloons to the components may or may not intersect, depending on the complexity of the assembly drawing, and the arrangement of the balloons relative to the assembly drawing. A designer may manually reposition balloons or adjust balloon-component pairings to adjust for conflicting leaders.