EA14: Archimate shapescript / rendering issues

[matthew.james]

There are several renedering issues withe Archimate3 shapes in EA14 (many / most of which trace back through earlier EA versions and Archimate MDGs).  From what I can tell many people are accepting these or working around the (eg by creating their own shapes) - I can't find any mention of bugs or issues being explicitly raised in this forum.  However givan that Archimate is obne of the major reasons why we are using EA I thought I would formalise the issues we are encountering.  I will raise a formal bug report for these also.

- Text wrapping: The element name is shown in the shapes but word wrapping is inconsistent, often resulting in words extending well beyond the shape boundary
- Motivation shape corners: The motivation (purple) elements have a 'cut off corner' shape which renders poorly when re-sized, the corners stretch proportional to the shape rather than remaining the same size
- General decoration rendering: The rectangle notation decorations are poorly rendered, eg shapes uneven, circles not round, and 'transform' in strange ways as the shapes are moved or re-sized
- Arrow head rendering: Like decorations, arrow heads are poorly rendered, sometimes showing being distorted or showing at odd angles to the line

I suspect that some of the above could be fixed with shapescripts, however the last two rendering issues may be due to the underlying EA rendering engine.

Note: If anyone has suggestions on how to work around the above (short of creating my own shapes) I'm interested to hear them

[Graham_Moir]

+1  for getting these things fixed. 

One comment though, the help says "It is not possible to modify or override Shape Scripts for types that are defined in an MDG Technology",  so I don't think "I suspect that some of the above could be fixed with shapescripts" will work.

[matthew.james]

One comment though, the help says "It is not possible to modify or override Shape Scripts for types that are defined in an MDG Technology",  so I don't think "I suspect that some of the above could be fixed with shapescripts" will work.

Graham - I meant by that comment that the authors (ie EA) could probably fix the problems with shapescript updates in the MDG.
I have reported this as a bug will see what EA comes back with

[Glassboy]

There are several renedering issues withe Archimate3 shapes in EA14 (many / most of which trace back through earlier EA versions and Archimate MDGs).  From what I can tell many people are accepting these or working around the (eg by creating their own shapes) - I can't find any mention of bugs or issues being explicitly raised in this forum.  However givan that Archimate is obne of the major reasons why we are using EA I thought I would formalise the issues we are encountering.  I will raise a formal bug report for these also.

3rd worst shapescript in the product :-)

[matthew.james]

3rd worst shapescript in the product :-)

... I'm not gonna ask cos I don't want to know

[Paolo F Cantoni]

There are several rendering issues with he Archimate3 shapes in EA14 (many / most of which trace back through earlier EA versions and Archimate MDGs).  From what I can tell many people are accepting these or working around the (eg by creating their own shapes) - I can't find any mention of bugs or issues being explicitly raised in this forum.  However, given that Archimate is one of the major reasons why we are using EA I thought I would formalise the issues we are encountering.  I will raise a formal bug report for these also.

3rd worst shapescript in the product :-)

You DO mean that the Sparx ArchiMate 3 scripts are the 3rd Worst, yes?  What are the other two?   

Paolo

[Geert Bellekens]

There are several rendering issues with he Archimate3 shapes in EA14 (many / most of which trace back through earlier EA versions and Archimate MDGs).  From what I can tell many people are accepting these or working around the (eg by creating their own shapes) - I can't find any mention of bugs or issues being explicitly raised in this forum.  However, given that Archimate is one of the major reasons why we are using EA I thought I would formalise the issues we are encountering.  I will raise a formal bug report for these also.

3rd worst shapescript in the product :-)

You DO mean that the Sparx ArchiMate 3 scripts are the 3rd Worst, yes?  What are the other two?   

Paolo

I wanna know too. I always though ArchiMate was number 1

Geert

PS. On the other end of the shapescript quality spectrum you'll find the shapescripts for BPMN. I've used those many times as inspiration when writing my own shapescripts.

[Sunshine]

There are several rendering issues with he Archimate3 shapes in EA14 (many / most of which trace back through earlier EA versions and Archimate MDGs).  From what I can tell many people are accepting these or working around the (eg by creating their own shapes) - I can't find any mention of bugs or issues being explicitly raised in this forum.  However, given that Archimate is one of the major reasons why we are using EA I thought I would formalise the issues we are encountering.  I will raise a formal bug report for these also.

3rd worst shapescript in the product :-)

You DO mean that the Sparx ArchiMate 3 scripts are the 3rd Worst, yes?  What are the other two?   

Paolo

Got me wondering too. Here is the MDG List
AML.xml
Archimate.xml
Archimate2.xml
ArchiMate3.xml
BPMN 1.0 Technology.xml
BPMN 1.1 Technology.xml
BPMN 2.0 Technology.xml
Checklists.xml
DFD Technology.xml
EAScriptLib.xml
Enterprise Information Models.xml
ErikssonPenker.xml
Executable State Machines.xml
GoF.xml
GRA-UML_Technology.xml
ICONIX Technology.xml
IFML.xml
Kanban.xml
LieberLieberAutosar_40_MDG_Technology_EA.xml
MindMapping.xml
NIEM.xml
NIEM_3and4_Technology.xml
ODM.xml
Project Management.xml
RiskTaxonomy.xml
SimpleUI.xml
SOMF.xml
Spem.xml
strategic.xml
Teradata Types.xml
UBL21.xml
umm2.xml
UPCC2Profile.xml
UPCC3Profile.xml
WebProfile Technology.xml
Whiteboard.xml
Wireframing.xml

[Glassboy]

You DO mean that the Sparx ArchiMate 3 scripts are the 3rd Worst, yes?  What are the other two?   

Mind mapping and DFD.

BPMN would seem to be the best, but I haven't used all of the MDGs.

[CondemnedPoet]

Not only rendering but the flow connection is missing in action in places where it's perfectly valid and other valid connection types aren't being accepted. It's a real mess and has got a lot worse in 1421. I can't use it and have had to go back to 13.5.

[Graham_Moir]

In build 1422

"ArchiMate 3

    - Quicklink behavior updated to set aggregation kind for Aggregation and Composition connectors
    - Connector validation rules updated:
        Specialization, Aggregation and Composition connectors now validate correctly
        Flow and Triggering connectors no longer report as not UML compliant"

[Paolo F Cantoni]

In build 1422

"ArchiMate 3

    - Quicklink behavior updated to set aggregation kind for Aggregation and Composition connectors
    - Connector validation rules updated:
        Specialization, Aggregation and Composition connectors now validate correctly
        Flow and Triggering connectors no longer report as not UML compliant"

I've been about to report a bug related to Aggregation Kind and the QuickLinker, but when I saw this I thought the bug might have been fixed.
We have our own MDG that has Aggregation and Composition relationships.  If the user drags the relationship between the two shapes and selects the appropriate relationship type, the aggregation kind is set correctly (because our MDG specifies it correctly).   However, if the user then uses the [F3] functionality, the Aggregation Kind is NOT correctly set and consequently, it can't match to the MDG and creates a spurious <MDG>::<Stereotype> entry in the local Stereotypes list.  Causing all manner of havoc.

Can anyone confirm before I submit a bug report?

Paolo

[Graham_Moir]

Confirmed there is a problem, although I just get a connector with a blank stereotype after using F3, but I don't have a special MDG loaded. 

That "spurious <MDG>::<Stereotype> entry in the local Stereotypes list.  Causing all manner of havoc."  has been an issue for a long time.  Time it was fixed for good.

[matthew.james]

I have reported this as a bug will see what EA comes back with

Sparx have responded with "confirmed as an issue to be fixed in a future build of EA", so it's on the backlog.  No idea of timing