Creating a simple blank and white colour scheme

[Polymorph]

I want to create diagrams free from all the random colours that EA thinks I want to see! I've managed to remove things like gradient fills from shapes and the page using the Tools>Options>Appearance dialogue box - that was pretty easy.

After some investigation I discovered that you can create a "Template" package and then create diagrams within this with the style settings you require (http://www.sparxsystems.com/enterprise_architect_user_guide/12.0/modeling_basics/using_element_templates.html)

This sort of works... if I create a new model element and drop it onto the diagram then it usually assumes the size and colour format options I defined. However, this is pretty tedious... I need to drop all of the elements from all of the possible toolboxes onto each diagram and then remove the colour from each one.

The help mentions Default Appearance Menu (http://www.sparxsystems.com/enterprise_architect_user_guide/12.0/modeling_basics/configuredefaultappearance.html)
but this is no help because this seems to only apply to specific model elements (not types of model element such as use cases, blocks etc)

Another option mentioned in the help file is to create a stereotype with the desired properties... This might be OK but don't I then have to first create the basic use case model element and then apply the stereotype to it (or is there a way to force all new instances of use cases to adopt this new stereotype by default)?


Surely there must be an easy wy to  turn off all the (frankly meanlingless) colours from all model elements?

[qwerty]

The only way to support this task is likely with a script to set colors the way you want (assuming you want black and white, not blank and white ).

q.

[Eve]

Maybe you just want to open Tools | Options | Diagram | Themes and select Monochrome for Printing as your theme.

You can still manually colour elements, but the defaults will always be black and white.

The other option is in the diagram properties of your diagram. Just click the checkbox for whiteboard mode. This will still allow manual coloring of the borders (like using a different color marker on a whiteboard) but it forces the fill colour to white.

[Paolo F Cantoni]

But I belong to the school of thought that says: consistent use of colour is NOT meaningless.  In fact, it can (and should) be used to surface properties of the underlying vertex or arc.

Edit by Simon - Paolo, sorry I tried to quote you and ended up removing the bulk of your message. Feel free to put it back.

[Aaron B]

Also if you just don't like the different colors that are applied to each element type, you can disable this under Tools | Options | Appearance > Use Element Group Style. (Changing diagram theme may also enable/disable this option)

[Eve]

But I belong to the school of thought that says: consistent use of colour is NOT meaningless.  In fact, it can (and should) be used to surface properties of the underlying vertex or arc.

You may want to look at the diagram legend auto-coloring then. http://www.sparxsystems.com/enterprise_architect_user_guide/12.1/building_models/diagram_legends.html

Even the meaningless color isn't useless. If by making diagrams a little more attractive or interesting to look at means that more people will use them.

[Paolo F Cantoni]

But I belong to the school of thought that says: consistent use of colour is NOT meaningless.  In fact, it can (and should) be used to surface properties of the underlying vertex or arc.

Edit by Simon - Paolo, sorry I tried to quote you and ended up removing the bulk of your message. Feel free to put it back.

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely...  

This was the salient part of the entry, so I might just leave it...

Paolo

[Sunshine]

Try right clicking in the diagram properties > white board mode
 

[Polymorph]

Thanks for the suggstions

I found the whiteboard mode - that's what I'm after!