Re: UML Static Structure Diagrams

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Date: Mon, 11 Oct 2004 00:28:52 +1000

Thanks for your help Carlos. Unfortunately by the sounds of it Visio won't
do what I was hoping it would. But now you have pointed out the shapesheets
I may be able to do some of that in a round about way. Thanks again...

Chris

"Carlos Perez" <perez@oldcolo.com> wrote in message
news:u4vCzaKrEHA.644@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> See my inline comments...
>
>>
>> 1. The first thing I want to be able to do is to create a package
> diagram -
>> very high level. Because I essentially have packages within packages,
> I'd
>> like to be able to draw a large package, with those packages underneath
>> it
>> in the hierarchy drawn within that package. However, the package shapes
> can
>> only have their width changed - not their height, thus making this
>> impossible. Can this be done?
>>
>
> Nested packages... this is tricky to change the behavior of the UML
> elements
> in Visio. Go into Windows -> ShapeSheet and poke around. ShapeSheet is
> not for the faint of heart. You will need to change the Protection
> (LockHeight) and some other magic attribute :)
>
> Another trick is to hand draw what is called an "anchor" symbol. This is
> in
> UML 1.5 and is diagrammed as a line and circle containing a cross symbol
> to
> model a tree structure.
>
>> 2. I want to be able to draw classes within their associated package (as
> a
>> form of grouping them). It seems as though Visio expects you to create a
>> new page for each package, but some of my packages are small (and
> related),
>> so I think they should appear on the same page. Can this be done?
>>
>
> Easy to do. Don't drag/drop packages from Shape window to create new
> packages. Use the Model Explorer and right click to create nested
> packages.
> Then drag/drop from Model Explorer.
>
>> 3. I have all my attributes and operations being displayed. I know you
> can
>> suppress these, but then you lose the box partitioned into 3 sections and
>> just get the top section with the heading. I want to do a high level
> class
>> diagram first, but still show the box with the 3 sections - is this
>> possible?
>>
>
> Don't think so.
>
>> 4. The next level of diagrams I want is a mid level diagram, showing
>> only
>> public attributes and operations, not the private ones. So I want to
>> suppress the private attributes/operations only. Is this possible?
>>
>
> This would be useful, but don't know a way to do this either. The Class
> Diagrammer in the next version of Visual Studio 2005 will have this
> capability to hide and sort based on visibility.
>
>> 5. This one is not so much of an issue - more of a query. Should
>> properties really appear as operations? Logically to me I would have
>> thought they would be attributes. I know they can be seen as operations,
>> but if I were to classify them as being either attributes or operations,
> I'd
>> go for attributes instead. Why then are they operations in Visio?
>>
>
> This is UML 1.4. It does not have a formal notion of "properties" as we
> see
> in C#, so Visio shows it as getter/setter operations. Properties have
> characteristics of both operations and attributes. I suggest the
> following-- define a new stereotype called "property" (UML ->
> Stereotypes),
> then set it on the operation. This is how I sometimes model C# properties
> on a diagram. Stereotypes are a common way to extend UML, so read up on
> them :)
>
>> I'm not totally familiar with UML, so I might be trying to do things that
>> you just aren't supposed to do - I don't know. There doesn't seem to be
>> much in the way of documentation of static structure diagrams beyond a
> basic
>> project with one namespace. I even got a book purely on the topic, but
>> it
>> didn't have any complex projects like mine so didn't help either.
> Hopefully
>> someone might be able to point me in the right direction. Thanks in
> advance
>> for any helpful hints and tricks you might be able to provide.
>>
>
> If you are communicating with UML, then you are doing it right.
>
> Good luck, Carlos
>
>

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