transparent appearance (for ui control elements)

[mazy]

hello.

i'm evaluating enterprise architect for our company and we may be interested in using it for our future projects.

one field we would like to use it for are the gui elements (mostly just linking the schematic representation of them to the rest of the model).

the way i work is to create prototype of the dialog/gui in visual designer, sometimes adjusting it in graphic editor.

i've learnt that i can use the mockup image for custom appearance of screen element for example. the next thing i would like to do is to place ui control elements on it, but make them transparent (i.e. place button stereotype over the place where i have button in the mockup).

is there any way how to do that? maybe using transparent metafile graphics for the control? or could this (transparent appearance) be added in the next version?

thank you.

[«Midnight»]

This sounds like a good starting point for a powerful feature. Perhaps a first step would be to allow UI elements to incorporate a user-supplied graphic.

This could provide part of what you ask for, assuming the graphic would support transparent rendering. That said, how does EA currently handle transparent images when they are applied to elements. I cannot remember if this is supported or handled gracefully. There is no mention of it in the most recent (build 804) user guide.

[mazy]

thank you for the reply.

afaik and from what i've tried you can supply custom graphics for almost any element (context menu > appearance > (select alternate image|apply image from clipboard)).

as for transparency - transparent png images will not get the transparency (in my case the transparent areas of the image simply went white). you can get transparency using vector graphics (metafiles), though that's not really what i need.

i would be happy with support for image-transparency (by the way all the bitmap graphics is stored as png images internally), however what i need more is just a way to make given element transparent (i.e. not drawing anything on the diagram).

of course i could cut-out part of the mockup image making the button and then use that for a custom image for the button element. i would have to position it exactly in alignment with the mockup etc.

as you can guess, that wouldn't pay off.

if i could use completely transparent elements, then i could make my mockup into ui model in a minute.

[«Midnight»]

Perhaps there is a (slightly) better was than cut and paste.

EA will let you save a 'stock' element as an image. This could then be edited with a third-part application, and then given back to EA as an 'external' image.

Still given that EA stores images internally in PNG format, and the lack of support for PNG transparency, I don't think this route will take you very far.

[MICHEL ADRIANO AGOSTINI]

Any solution currently for this problem?
In my wireframe diagram, I need to put a TreeView inside a table, transparency would help a lot.

[qwerty]

Hu. That's not even a zombie thread. It's so un-dead that there's no word for it. (I was told to explain that I'd been joking as it's no obvious for some reason.)

If you're looking for transparency in general on this forum you'll find a couple of (sometimes not directly) related threads. But it's clear as dumpling broth that Sparxians don't need any transparency. Not just with pictures but in lots of cases. Not joking in this case.

q.