Topics

1

Uml Process / Prevent Diagram Modifications following structural additions

« on: March 27, 2018, 01:48:22 am »

Hi everyone

I want to prevent any structural features that I add to a block/class from being automatically added to any existing diagrams by default...

For example, on let's say I have a BDD called "My System Diagram"and onto this I place two blocks: "My System" which connects (via reference association) to "Another System". Neither of these blocks own any structural features such as ports or part properties at the time the diagram was created.

Now, assume I create a new diagram (perhaps in a later development phase) and I add a new block, called "My Subsystem" and then create a compositional relationship from this new block back to the "My System" block. This causes EA to create a Part Property on "My Block" (this is good!). I then do some more work and I add a port to both "My System" and "Another System".

Now, I return to the BDD diagram that I created earlier and I see that EA has added these structural features to the blocks inside their respective compartments. This causes the elements on the diagram to resize and messes up the look of the diagram (this is bad!).

Does anyone know how to stop EA from doing this by default?

The only way I have found is to create a diagram in a "Template" package, on which EA bases all future diagrams. I can use this template to turn off all of the various structural display elements - but the problem is that I have hundreds of diagrams that were created before the template diagram was created. This means that my old diagrams are not affected by the template!

Please say I don't have do go back and manually change them all!!

Note: "locking" the diagram does not help - that only stops people from dragging elements around and/or manually resizing them

2

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Discussions and Reviews

« on: November 30, 2017, 11:25:33 pm »

Hello

EA recently introduced a new "Reviews and Discussions" feature which we are trialling at the moment.

http://www.sparxsystems.com/enterprise_architect_user_guide/13.5/guidebooks/tools_ba_element_discussions.html

Does anyone know where in the database these discussions get stored? I want to extract them out to a Word document

Thanks!

3

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Adding Comments to Document Templates

« on: June 26, 2017, 10:11:44 pm »

Does anyone know if it is possible to add comments to document templates to help others understand what the template is doing?

Basically, I want a way to add text to the template that will not be exported into the final document...

Thanks!

4

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Understanding OCL

« on: May 25, 2017, 08:13:22 pm »

I'm interesting in writing OCL expressions to help me apply my own model validation rules to my custom MDG Technology...

Can anyone recommend any good resources to help me get started? I have found a few generic tutorials on OCL on the web which explain the syntax. But I am not really sure how I actually use them in EA. Does anyone know of any tutorials that show how it can be used?

Thanks

5

Suggestions and Requests / Allow Matrix Specifications to also include Model Searches

« on: March 03, 2017, 08:52:15 pm »

Matrix specifications currently only allow source and target packages to be specified. The ability to also define source and target searches would allow more control over relationship matrices

See original thread: http://sparxsystems.com/forums/smf/index.php/topic,37982.0.html

6

Uml Process / Matrix Specifications & Searches

« on: March 01, 2017, 09:25:18 pm »

It is possible for a relationship matrix to use searches to find elements for its columns and/or rows.



It is also possible to create matrix specification elements that can be used to load a relationship matrix with a particular matrix profile.
However, when these elements are created there seems to be no way to specify a particular search for it to run: you can only specific particular source and target packages.



Does anyone know if there is a way to use a matrix specification element to load a matrix specification with a particular model search enabled?

7

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Exporting Relationship Matrices to Word

« on: February 10, 2017, 03:13:51 am »

Has anyone found a way to create a document template that exports a relationship template to Word? I can get EA to print out a JPEG of the matrix easily enough but this is totally useless because it is so tiny as to be completely illegible. Does this require some kind of Ninja SQL skills?

Obviously there's the CSV export option from the Relationship Matrix itself but this has its own problems because it only outputs the names of the elements and none of their detailed attributes such as their notes.

I am performing requirements traceability and am amazed that this functionality seems to be so lacking!

8

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Add Tagged value to custom diagram type

« on: February 03, 2017, 12:36:31 am »

Can you add tagged values to custom diagram types using an MDG Technology?

I have successfully added tagged values to model elements by creating attributes on the stereotype in the profile. When I try the same trick with a diagram it doesn't seem to work.



Has anyone managed to do this?

9

Uml Process / Satisfy Dependency Stereotype behaviour

« on: January 16, 2017, 07:36:17 pm »

When I create a satisfy relationship between a block (as the source) and requirement (as the target), using the SysML 1.3 toolbox, EA applies the following stereotype: «sysML1.3::satisfy»

This seems to be the only relationship from the Requirements Toolbox that has this behaviour. All other relationships are rendered with they stereotype name only (no mention of the version of SysML they are taken from. Does anyone know why this happens and how it can be turned off?

If I turn off the SysML 1.3 MDG and enable SysML 1.4 then the problem seems to disappear but I don't want to change to SysML 1.4 if I can avoid it as we are mid-way through a project.

10

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Headers and Footers

« on: January 04, 2017, 02:51:03 am »

In which RTF Template(s) should I create my headers and footers when generating documents?

Presently, I have created them in my Cover Page only. When I generate the document, the cover page contains them, but none of the subsequent pages do... what am I doing wrong?

Using EA13 but still constructing documents using the Master Document (rather than Report Package) element

11

Uml Process / Find and Replace

« on: December 23, 2016, 12:03:03 am »

Is there any way to perform a find and replace for a text string within the "Notes" of an element?

Any of you scripting gurus got any suggestions if not?

Thanks!

12

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Displaying diagrams using Diagram Fragments

« on: December 07, 2016, 12:52:17 am »

Does anyone know how diagram fragments can be used to display diagrams in a a virtual document?

I can create an SQL query to find the package that contains the diagram easily enough... but I then need to display the diagram image for the diagram that is located inside the package.

Do I need to return a specific field from a table in the database? If so, which database table actually stores the image?

13

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Nesting Master Documents?

« on: December 02, 2016, 12:29:01 am »

I am creating a virtual document using a «master document» package containing a series of «model document» elements. I'd like to be able to group these model documents to allow me to control the structure of the document more easily. Is it possible to nest, or combine two separate «master document» packages into a larger document?

Thanks!

14

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Linking messages and operations using SQL

« on: November 30, 2016, 07:51:30 am »

Can anyone suggest an SQL query that would be able to link a message on a sequence diagram to the actual operation on the block which classifies the lifeline.

The connector that represents the message the diagram has the same name as the operation, but... It also has parenthesis after the name. This means that trying to do an SQL JOIN statement doesn't work, since the name of the actual operation excludes the parentheses.

I'm no SQL guru so there might be a clever way to construct the query... Or perhaps there is another table with the info...?

15

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Duplicate Details in Model Exports

« on: November 29, 2016, 07:40:03 am »

Let's say I have two diagrams and want to export them to a document.

Diagram 1 has blocks A and B
Diagram 2 has blocks A and C

I want to construct a template that outputs the "notes" from each block underneath each diagram. But, ideally, I only want to export those notes once.

So, when the exporter gets to Diagram 2, it only outputs the notes from block C (because it previously exported block A)

Does anyone know of any sneaky ways to get EA to do this? Some kind of script that keeps track of the number of times an element has been found during the export process before?!?