Please note : This help page is not for the latest version of Enterprise Architect. The latest help can be found here.

Feature Visibility

When you set up the characteristics and features of an element, you can set a collection of options to display or hide the features of that element on a specific diagram. You can also filter the attributes and operations that are shown by scope - such as hiding all protected attributes - or select to hide or show specific attributes and operations. The visibility you set applies only to the current diagram, so a Class can appear in one diagram with all features displayed, and in another with features hidden.

It is possible to hide or show inherited attributes, operations, responsibilities, constraints and Tagged Values for elements that support those features. When the system displays inherited features, it creates a merged list from all generalized parents and from all realized interfaces. If a child Class redefines something found in a parent, the parent feature is omitted from the list.

Access     In diagram, right-click element | Features & Properties | Feature and Compartment Visibility or
Click element | Element | Feature Visibility   (Ctrl+Shift+Y)

Customize feature visibility

Field/Button

Action

See also

Attribute Visibility

Select the checkbox against each scope that should be visible, and clear the checkbox against each scope that should not be visible.

 

Create and Manage Attributes

 

Operation Visibility

Select the checkbox against each scope that should be visible, and clear the checkbox against each scope that should not be visible.

 

Define Properties of Operations

Show and Custom

Use these to show or hide specific operations or attributes.

If you select the Show checkbox, the Custom button displays the Show Features in Diagram dialog; if you deselect the checkbox, the button displays the Suppress Features in Diagram dialog.

The two dialogs are identical. Select the checkboxes of specific features to show or hide on the element in the diagram.

You can also use the:

·Filter by Scope drop-down arrow to filter the list to show only features that have a specific scope
·All button to select all operations or attributes in the list
·None button to clear the checkboxes against all selected operations or attributes in the list
 

The Show checkbox, if selected, overrides the selections to display attributes or operations in the element, other than those specifically selected in the Show Features in Diagram dialog.

 

 

When Resizing Elements

Select the appropriate option for resizing the Class, object or table to manage very wide diagram objects. Select the:

·Resize to longest Feature radio button (the default), so that the minimum width for a diagram object is determined by its longest displayed attribute, operation or other compartment value
·Wrap Features radio button (so that any long features are wrapped onto multiple lines) or
·Truncate Features radio button (so that long features are not displayed in full)

 

 

Inherited Features

If you want to display inherited attributes and/or operations as well as directly owned ones, select one or both of the Show Attributes and Show Operations checkboxes.

Display Inherited Attributes

Display Inherited Operations

 

Hide Stereotyped Features

If you do not want to show an object having a particular stereotype, type that stereotype name - exactly as defined - in this field; the field is case-sensitive.

If you want to specify more than one stereotype, separate the stereotype names with a comma.

 

 

Show element compartments

Select the checkbox against each compartment to display in the element on the diagram.

Some technologies such as SysML define additional compartments in the element, such as for Ports, Parts and Flow Ports. Visibility of these compartments will also be controlled by a checkbox matching the name of the compartment.

If you select the Fully Qualified Tags checkbox, the Tags compartment will contain the full provenance of each Tagged Value (if created in Enterprise Architect release 7.1 or later) where the same Tagged Value is used several times in different contexts with different values. The description in the Tags compartment reads:

 

<Profile>::<Stereotype>::<Tagged Value name>=<Value>

 

For example:

 

BPMN::Activity::Activity Type = Task

 

 

You can display an informal internal or composite diagram of child elements such as Ports, Parts and Classes within a compartment of the parent element, by selecting the Structured Compartment checkbox. The Structured Compartment acts as a container for the child elements; Classes cannot be dragged out of the compartment, and Ports and Parts are confined to the borders of the compartment.

If you want to apply a structure and formal relationships to the child elements, create a proper Composite Structure Diagram containing the elements and select the Show Composite Diagram in Compartment context menu option.

 

 

Add Custom Compartments to Element

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Composite Elements

Element Notes

Select the Show Notes checkbox to display, in the Notes compartment on the element in the diagram, the text that has been typed into the Notes field of the element Properties dialog.

This checkbox also enables the maximum chars field, which defaults to 1000 as the number of characters of Notes text that can be displayed. Overtype this value to display less text or more text, as you need.

The setting applies only to the selected elements on the diagram, so you can display full notes for the selected element whilst the other elements on the diagram have no notes text.

You can also select the Render Formatted Notes checkbox to display the text on the diagram as formatted using the Notes field toolbar.

 

Notes Toolbar

Runstate

Select the checkbox if you want to hide the object runstate of the element on the diagram.

 

Object State

Type

(Available for Ports and Parts only.) Select the checkbox if you want to display the element type.

 

 

OK

Click on this button to save your settings.

The diagram redisplays with the appropriate level of feature visibility.

 

 

Notes

·To show features for element types that do not have visible compartments, such as Use Cases and Actors, right-click on the diagram object to display the context menu and select the Advanced | Use Rectangle Notation option