Help with dynamic drawing and collision detection

[font=Arial][size=2][color=navy][color=navy][font=Arial][/font][/color][/color][/size][/font]Picture a stage filled with multiple instances of a circular movieclip. I want to be able to:

[font=Arial][size=2][color=navy][color=navy][font=Arial][/font][/color][/color][/size][/font] [font=Arial][size=2][color=navy][color=navy]font=Arial[font=Times New Roman][size=1][font=Times New Roman] [/font][/size][/font][/font][/color][/color][/size][/font][font=Arial][size=2][color=navy][color=navy][font=Arial]dynamically draw a path from any one instance X to any other instance Z, but that path cannot cross any instance Y that happens to fall in between instances X and Z (a kind of dynamic drawing with collision detection). if an instance Y sits between X and Z, the path should curve around Y to get from X to Z. I’m able to draw a path from X to Z using the drawing API, but I’m not sure how to perform a hit test on the path and every other instance because I can’t seem to limit the hit area of the hit test to the actual shape of the path (as opposed to its bounding box).[/font][/color][/color][/size][/font]

[font=Arial][size=2][color=navy][color=navy]font=Arial[font=Times New Roman][size=1][font=Times New Roman] [/font][/size][/font][/font][/color][/color][/size][/font][font=Arial][size=2][color=navy][color=navy][font=Arial]use a tapered, brush-like stroke for the line style. I have had mixed results with this. I can get it to taper (although not very smoothly), but I have a hard time getting it to twist and wind in a convincing fashion.[/font][/color][/color][/size][/font]

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[font=Arial][size=2][color=navy][color=navy][font=Arial]Thanks![/font][/color][/color][/size][/font]