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Non-printable Elements

When you intend to generate a report that depicts diagrams from your model, you might decide that you do not want to show certain elements on a diagram in the report. You might have, for example:

  • Notes and Text elements containing short pieces of information or explanations
  • Artifact elements containing standards or instructions in linked documents
  • Any other element that is not relevant to the purpose or subject of the report

You can exclude such elements (with their connectors) from being printed in any depiction of the diagram in a report, by manipulating the 'Printable' status of each non-relevant element. Conversely, you can force the inclusion of these non-printable elements in the printed diagram, by turning off the 'Hide non-printable objects' option in report generation.

Configure the Printable Attribute

All elements added to a diagram have the status 'Printable' by default. To turn this off and make an element non-printable (or turn it back on again) right-click on the element and click on the 'Printable' option.

You can turn this option on or off for multiple elements, by selecting the elements and right-clicking on one of them to display the context menu, then clicking on the option.

Activate Printable Option for Reports

You can control the printing of non-printable elements on depictions of diagrams in reports, through the 'Options' page of the 'Document Generation' dialog.

Option

Action

Using in Ad Hoc Reports

Select the parent Package or element for the diagram, and press F8; set up your report generation parameters as required.

On the 'Options' page, the 'Hide non-printable objects' checkbox defaults to selected, to omit all elements that have the 'Printable' option turned off from depictions of diagrams in the report.

If you want to include non-printable elements in the diagrams in the report, click on the checkbox to clear it.

Using in Document Templates

The 'Hide non-printable objects' option is a global, registry, setting and cannot be turned off in document templates or in document generation through the Automation Interface.

Notes

  • Turning off the 'Printable' option for an element also hides the element and its connectors when you print the diagram, print to PDF and save an image of the diagram

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