XMI Import not showing Model

[shagunbidani]

Hi,

I have exported Erwin model into XMI file and then tried to import that into EA. The model got imported, i can see all the subject areas and entities into it. But i am not able to view the pictorial form of the model. Likewise we can see in Erwin. Can anyone please help ?

[qwerty]

XMI interchange (unlike it's name suggest) is not for interchanging between tools of different vendors but just for within the breed of one single vendor. Partially you can be lucky and get information from one tool transported to another one (as you experience). But you won't get any guarantee. You could go to either provider. But what will the Erwin vendors tell? You guessed... And then you go to Sparx. And guess what they tell you...

q.

[Eve]

Contrary to qwerty's belief. XMI is for interchanging models between tools. The OMG with tool vendors including Sparx Systems has a dedicated group that works to define test cases that currently cover UML, SysML, SoaML, and UPDM. This started around the time of XMI 2.1 so you'll generally find that tools using that version or later will be better at exchange than those using earlier XMI versions.

The problem is that only the most recent specification (2.5) defines a standard for diagram exchange. That means that the results are going to be pretty much as you have found. The exception is that tool vendors including Sparx Systems do sometimes invest in learning and importing the diagram formats of their competitors to help users migrate to their tool. If you want to see Sparx Systems implement that for Erwin, I suggest you send in a feature request. I have no idea if Erwin even exports any diagram information, but if the request is popular enough we're likely to look into it.

[Graham_Moir]

That's very useful Simon. 

So am I to conclude that BPMN is out of scope for the XMI interchange?

[Eve]

While it is possible to exchange BPMN using XMI, I wouldn't recommend it.

BPMN has its own exchange format, and the various tool vendors (including Sparx Systems) have put a lot of work into ensuring it works.

If this video is the one I'm thinking of, it shows a single BPMN model being exchanged between a whole series of tools with even the diagram information being preserved.

[Graham_Moir]

Thanks Simon.