Archimate element instances - names and icons?

[David G]

Hi there,

Apologies if I'm doing something daft here, but I can't seem to get Archimate instance elements to work as I'd expect.

I'd expect that Archimate instances would work like other instances in EA: I want to create an instance of a classifier, and the instance would display a name derived from the name of the classifier, and also the icon (assuming I have iconstyle=false). But when I create instances onto a diagram, I just get blank boxes with no name or icon.

Here is a screenshot of my classifiers and their tagged values:



And here is a screenshot of my instances derived from the those classifiers:



As you can see, there are no names and the icon does not appear (even with iconstyle=false and showdecoration=true).

I'm on v9.0.906, and my previous v8 had the same behaviour.

Any guidance gratefully received!

Cheers,

Dave.

[Sunshine]

Not 100% sure what you are trying to achieve but I can try and explain whats happening. The archimate function is mapped on to an activity and stereotyped as an "ArchiMate_Function" which has a shapescript that gives you the archimate icon. When you create an "instance" you are actually creating a UML action with no name that has a classifier of the archimate function. The name is blank as you have to supply a new name. i.e. if you create an instance of  a Human Classifier you need to name it "David".
The shapescript applies to the UML activity stereotyped as  "ArchiMate_Function" but there is no shapescript for the instance which is actually a UML action. If you want to show the instance with the Archimate Icon you should create a stereotype "ArchiMate_Function" for an action and copy the shapescript.
Well hope that helps.  

[Sunshine]

Curiosity has gotten the better of me so I have to ask. If an object is an instance of a class what is an instance of a Function called?   [smiley=huh.gif]

[skiwi]

If an object is an instance of a class what is an instance of a Function called?  

Perhaps a Thunk

[Sunshine]

If an object is an instance of a class what is an instance of a Function called?  

Perhaps a Thunk

Interesting suggestion but none of the definitions seem to cover instances of function

Thunk may refer to:

• Thunk (functional programming), a piece of code to perform a delayed computation (similar to a closure)
• Thunk (object-oriented programming): a feature of some virtual function table implementations
• Thunk (compatibility mapping), a mapping of machine data from one system-specific form to another, usually for compatibility reasons
• A measure of time, used on Digital Equipment Corporation computers, measuring the number of clock ticks since the founding of the Smithsonian Institution