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

Charts

Enterprise Architect can provide you with a wealth of data that is crucial to business planning, organizational strategy, decision making and Project Management. One way of summarizing this data in a format suitable for swift and easy appraisal is to present it in the form of charts and graphs, which are ideal for including in reports and distributing via the internet. Within Enterprise Architect you can create Chart elements that define the type, source, content and appearance of a chart, either on their own Dashboard diagram (one of the Extended diagram types) or on other types of diagram as best suits your requirements. This provides a simple and fast mechanism for collating and presenting a lot of information automatically, such as summaries of Requirement Status or Test Case Status values across the current project.

Types of Chart  Available

Using Enterprise Architect, you can create a number of different charts including:

Pie - 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional
Doughnut - 2D and 3D
Torus
Line Graph (Time Series)
Table (Model Views)
Horizontal bar - 2D and 3D
Vertical column - 2D and 3D
 

You can also generate some of these charts filtered according to another data quantity, presenting this as table columns, segments of a bar or separate bars in a cluster.

Creating a Chart

You create a Chart element by dragging a Chart icon onto a diagram from the Dashboard pages of the Diagram Toolbox onto a diagram (standard Chart icons are also available on the common Artifacts and Documentation pages of the Toolbox). You then define the type of Chart, the data it presents, the source of that data and the appearance of the Chart, within the element Properties.

Depending on the type of Chart you are creating, the data can be sourced from across the whole model, from specific Packages within the model, or from a custom SQL Query that extracts the information from the model. You can also paste the data from an external CSV file into the element, to be presented as a Chart.

Each Chart is dynamic, and is automatically updated whenever you edit it or open its parent diagram. You can also manually refresh it using an option on the element context menu. Time Series Charts can also be automatically updated by the Cloud Server according to a schedule that you define in the element Properties.

Key Features

A major benefit of generating a Chart as and from a model element is that many of the facilities for working with elements - and the Packages and diagrams that contain them - are available on the Chart, such as:

Including charts and graphs in document reports
Hosting Charts on a website to facilitate communication
Automatically updating and processing the element content (and hence refreshing the Chart)
Performing XMI imports and exports on Chart Packages
Saving a Chart as a diagram image
Setting the Chart diagram as the model or user default diagram
Defining a Chart as a model Pattern
Changing the element properties and getting an immediate change to the content and/or appearance of the Chart; useful in, for example, testing a search and visualizing the results
 

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