Change BPMN Element Appearance

To define the specifications of BPMN elements and relationships, open the Tagged Values window and select the required element or relationship in a diagram. The Tagged Values window shows the appropriate Tagged Values and provides a list of values to assign to each one.

Some Tagged Values directly affect the appearance of the elements they apply to, as described in the following examples:

• Events - to change the decoration of a Start Event or Intermediate Event, set the Trigger Tagged Value; to change the decoration of an End Event, set the Result Tagged Value. For example, to create a BPMN 'off-page' connector, set the Trigger or Result Tagged Value to Link to depict flow onto the diagram, into a branch diagram or off the diagram for the Start, Intermediate and End events respectively.
• Gateways - to create the different varieties of Gateway, set the GatewayType Tagged Value; other display options are available for XOR gateways - you can set the XORType Tagged Value to create Event-based or Data-based XOR gateways, and for Data-based XOR gateways you can set the MarkerVisible Tagged Value to false to hide the decoration.
• Activities - there is a wide variety of appearance options for Activities:

• The ActivityType Tagged Value can be set to Task or Sub-Process; the latter option displays the 'plus-in-a-box' decoration on the bottom edge of the shape
• An Ad-hoc Activity is shown by setting the AdHoc Tagged Value to true; this displays the 'tilde' decoration on the bottom edge of the shape
• A Compensation Activity is shown by setting the IsCompensation Tagged Value to true; this displays the 'rewind' icon on the bottom edge of the shape
• A Multiple Instance Activity is shown by setting the LoopType Tagged Value to MultiInstance; this displays the 'pause' icon on the bottom edge of the shape
• A Loop Activity is shown by setting the LoopType Tagged Value to either Standard or MultiInstance, this displays the 'loop' icon on the bottom edge of the shape.

• Transactions - to denote a Transaction with a double-lined border, set the IsATransaction Tagged Value to true.

• Sequence Flows - to put a diagonal slash across the line at the source end, set the ConditionType Tagged Value to Default; to put an unfilled diamond-shaped decoration at the source end, set the Tagged Value to Expression.

Version Differences

Some BPMN elements have changed in appearance between BPMN version 1.0 and BPMN version 1.1.

In Enterprise Architect releases later than 7.1, if you work on a model created in an earlier release, using BPMN 1.0, existing elements default to their version 1.0 appearance. New elements assume the BPMN version 1.1 appearance and automatically have a Tagged Value BPMNVersion set to 1.1

If you want a new element to revert to the BPMN version 1.0 appearance, set the Tagged Value to 1.0. Conversely, if you want an older element to assume the BPMN version 1.1 appearance, assign the BPMNVersion Tagged Value to it, with the value 1.1.