Missing Feature/Bug: Alignment of child element, in particular Action Pins

[nagmat84]

It appears as if child elements, in particular Action Pins, are neither subject to the normal algigment procedures, e.g. smart alignment, nor can they be aligned using the buttons from the toolbar. Do I miss something or is this an unsuppored feature or bug?

Lets consider the following Activity diagram as an example.



In this first image, I wanted to horizonally align the upper middle Action Pin of "Action 2" to the the center of its parent. Hence both the Action Pin and the Action itself are selected. However, the buttons in the ribbon bar in section "Alignment" are all greyed out.



In this second image, I wanted to horizontally align two Action Pins and the object of Class 3. Again, the buttons in the ribbon bar are greyed out.

This always happens as soon as I select any child element. It seems as if EA does not consider child elements as elements which can be aligned. This is extremely annoying as it basically prevents me from generating neat and accurate diagrams and it is extremely surprising as even open source UML editors such Visual Paradigm can do this. I am also wondering why nobody else seem to miss this feature.

[qwerty]

Yes, child elements are not considered. Also nested elements. For the first case I wrote myself a script to align pins/ports (which was not that trivial). For the 2nd you must be aware before doing an automatic layout. Eventually you use the layout selected from the context.

q.

[nagmat84]

That is a real shame. I am continiously astonished how many obvious features are missing or bugs are present in this product.

For the 2nd you must be aware before doing an automatic layout. Eventually you use the layout selected from the context.

I don't get your message. The first sentence seems incomplete and is missing context. I must be aware of what? Moreover, even if a was aware of whatever am I supposed to be aware of before I run an automatic layout, what shall I do with that awareness? What actions do you propose? The second sentence is also rather unclear. Why should I use a layout selected from the context (menu, I believe)? And for what purpose should I use it?

[qwerty]

I tend to use telegram format...

2nd is about the nested elements. If you drag a parent its children will be dragged along. But when you do a layout EA does not respect this relation and pulls it apart.

TBH: layout IS complicated. I use it only for a start and then keep further maintenance manually. There could be more support but I'd expect it to make the situation worse rather than better. So I can live with the current state.

q.