Notes in Sequence Diagrams and message placing

[EaUser111]

Hello everyone,

when I draw a sequence diagram, I first draw the messages and then add notes with explanations for the reader as appropriate.
I place the notes just sideways of the messages wherever some space is left. This does not change the placement of the existing messages at all.

Maybe it is just my impression, but with recent versions of EA (I am currently on version 10 build 1007), when I subsequently want to change the placement of a message even a tiny a bit through drag and drop, the messages on the same level as a note are pushed further down so that the note occupies an exclusive vertical space. For me this behaviour is totally unwanted and annoying. What I do then is: move the note below any messages, re-place the messages and than move the note back to where it was.

Is there any way to change this so that the notes don't influence message placing?

BR and thanks in advance
Thorsten

[Geert Bellekens]

I agree, that is annoying (and new since v10).

Geert

[SomersetGraham]

When moving a message it is now necessary to hold the 'Alt' key

[Geert Bellekens]

No exactly.
In most cases you don't need the alt key, and most cases work perfectly fine. If you move a message up, or down, then all messages and fragments below this message move up/down too, as you would want them to.

You only need the alt key when you want to move a message independently of the rest of the diagram.

Geert

[SomersetGraham]

When I move a message without the alt key the messages below move a long way down - like off the bottom of the screen

[EaUser111]

I know that. But I just want to adjust the position of a message, not change its position with respect to other messages. So that is not what my question is about. I think Geert has understood what I am referring to.
This really seems to be something that came with v10.

Sparx: would you mind to just bring the old behaviour back?

[qwerty]

You should send an official feature request. Chances are near to zero your wish will be fulfilled if you just ask here.

q.

[Geert Bellekens]

I know that. But I just want to adjust the position of a message, not change its position with respect to other messages. So that is not what my question is about. I think Geert has understood what I am referring to.
This really seems to be something that came with v10.

Sparx: would you mind to just bring the old behaviour back?

NOOOOOO!!!!
The changes in the way sequence diagrams work are one of the main reasons we upgraded to v10.
Using the old behavior it was almost impossible to change the something on a large SD without scrambling everything.
We actually made a habit if creating an image of the SD as backup before trying to edit a such a diagram.
The current behavior, although not yet 100% perfect is still 10 times better then the old behavior.

Geert

[EaUser111]

Well, of course I did not mean to ask for a discard of all improvements made to the Sequence Diagram.
I just want the old behaviour wrt. Notes and Messages. You stated that this is annoying yourself. (Btw, it is also not logical.) It can't be that it's an all or nothing sort of thing here.

Geert, I hope that my intention is clear now and that you have no problem with it.

Perhaps a stupid question:
How would I make an official feature request?

Thorsten

[Geert Bellekens]

Sure, no problem , and indeed, they could do something about the notes thing.
To make official Feature Request you use the link on the bottom of this page with the name Feature Request

Geert

[EaUser111]

Done. But I made it a bug report, since in my view this is a bug. No idea if this improves the chances of this getting fixed, however.

[EaUser111]

Surprise, surprise!
This is the response on my bug report that I received from Sparx:

This is a known issue.  A fix is currently scheduled to be implemented
in the next build of Enterprise Architect.

So let's hope for the best!

[Geert Bellekens]

Cool! That probably means you'll have a fix in a few weeks.

Geert