Make Copies of Use Cases

[Gcrispieri]

I would like that the software allowed you to make copies of definied uses cases into new diagrams so you can edit or modifiy them without having to re-enter them.

[CJ]

G'day,

Is the current "copy diagram element" feature (as per EA help file's index) what you are looking for?

[Gcrispieri]

Thanks for pointing that out. However this is not working for me.  When I do this all my sequential messages disappear and I have to start entering them again.

I would just like to select a diagram and make a copy of it with a different name. Then, I can open the diagram and make the changes I want to make to it.

[Bruno.Cossi]

Hi,

you can just select all of the elements on the diagram, copy them into the clipboard, then create a new diagram and paste the object as new (Edit > Paste as New, or right-click, Paste, As New).

Hope this helps,

Bruno

[Gcrispieri]

Thanks!
When I do this, the software copies the objects assigning a new name but the sequence of messages do not get transfer. They disappear.

I end with two set of interfaces and no messages...

[Bruno.Cossi]

Oh, I forgot that the connectors do not get copied... then I do not know, I am afraid. Some possible workarounds come to my mind (export the package with the diagram and the elements to an XML file, rename the original package, import the XML file), but I am not sure if they will help nor do I think they are a systematic solution.

Bruno

[Gcrispieri]

Bruno:

I was afraid to hear that! Is it any method you can use so you do not have to enter all the information of your messages everytime you add a sequence message?  I have sometimes up to 20 sequential messages and all I need is to change one or two to create a different scenario and I am having to enter all of them every single time...

Any tip will be appreciated...

Gino

[Bruno.Cossi]

Gino:

Well, there is a workaround, but it is not nice:

1. Export the package with the diagram and elements that you want to duplicate into an XML file
2. Edit the XML file. You will need to change the unique ids (xmi.id). Otherwise, when importing the XML file back, it would interfere with the original diagram.
3. Import the XML file into a new package.

This is obviously a lot of work, quite possibly more than just creating new diagram from scratch.

Now, if you have multiple interaction diagrams that differ only slightly, you do not have to duplicate the diagrams over and over again.
You may be better off using the Interaction Occurrence. Just create an interaction diagram and model the common interactions. Then you can reuse this in the other diagram just by simply dragging and dropping the "common" diagram onto your new interaction diagram. When asked, select that you want to drop the "common" diagram as an Interaction Occurrence".

Hope this helps!

Bruno

P.S. This assumes you are using EA 4.x, this functionality, unless I am mistaken, did not exist before.

[CJ]

G'day,

This may be overkill or just a completely useless/silly suggestion...

Have you tried out patterns in EA?  Check out in EA's help file contents:  Modeling with UML ... UML Patterns.