BPMN2 - Resize / center text

[makhai]

Hi,

I have a little problem with BPMN2 diagrams. When I create a new activity the text appears in the middle of the box. When I resize the box, e.g. make it smaller, the text ends up somewhere but not in the middle of the box - even if there is enough space. How can I configure that a label is always centered?

Thanks
mk

[Graham_Moir]

It looks to me as though the text is top centred with a fixed offset from the top of the element.  If you make the activity bigger the title/text stays in this position no matter how big the element is.   If you make the element smaller the same constraints apply which means you can actually end up with the text outside the element if you make it small enough. 

No sure how you adjust this.   I have a vague recollection of an option to centre or left/right justify the text but I can't find it any more. 

[avi10000]

Hi,
What is the latest on this?
When I use small size activity boxes, the text caption tends to appear at the box's bottom, and even outside of the box altogether.

Using EA 16.1.

Thanks
Avi

[qwerty]

BPMN shapes are rendered using shape script. So whether or not this will be corrected (if Sparx agrees it to be worth a fix) depends on the number of requests sent to Sparx (most likely). One could hack the shapes in the MDG but in most cases this is not the best you can/should do.

q.

[Eve]

You are correct. The name of a BPMN activity is aligned to the top, but the default size makes it look centered.

That behavior is intentional, and changing it would have an unknown impact on thousands of diagrams. It's likely that many people would now find their text overlapping with other elements etc.

[avi10000]

Hi all ,
Thanks Eve for responding.

This is not good.

(A) I have found one crazy fix for this phenomenon - if I drag a new activity B inside activity A (so that activity B becomes a sub-activity of activity A) and then I delete activity B, that makes the problem less bad - the text is now always top-left justified (!)

(B) Question: Is there a shape script to fix this (and how to run it) ? 

(C) Also, in BPMN, the zoom-out is very limited. 

(C) Side question: UML/SysML activity diagrams do not have this problem - why is BPMN different?

(D) This is a show-stopper for me. If this cannot be fixed, I will probaly go back to Visio, at least for the time being.   

(E) Question: Does EA offer a different business language that does not have this visual problem?

> That behavior is intentional, and changing it would have an unknown impact on thousands of diagrams. It's likely that many people would now find their text overlapping with other elements etc.

(F) Question: How do those people manage to use BPMN with such a restriction? What guidelines do they use ?


Thanks
Avraham
 

[Eve]

(A) Yes, that's how the spec shows a Sub-Activity because when the sub-activity elements are shown it tries to make the name as easy as possible to see.

(B) You could theoretically specialize the BPMN stereotypes yourself and write your own shape script that works the way you want. I am not aware of any scripts that already exist that behave the way you want.

(C) I can't reproduce any zoom restrictions that's different to any other diagram type.

(D) I don't understand why the resize behavior of the name of an element would be a show stopper.

(E) See my answer to your question directly on that topic.

(F) From what I can see, you are unique about having this particular complaint. I found a couple of users that wanted it moved up, and another that was requesting full alignment options.

Sorry I can't help more.

[avi10000]

Thank you.
This is a dumb bug that cost me a couple of hours that I don't have to spare.
I will probably use EA activity diagrams for the biz processes (SDLC process descriptions).

Thank you, again.

[Takeshi K]

Hello avi10000,

Just for your information about your Question (A), after the deletion the Sub-Activity, right-clicking the (parent) Activity and selecting 'Is Expanded' will return to default drawing.

HTH,