Messages

1

General Board / Re: Introducing EA Word Importer

« on: November 22, 2014, 01:34:20 am »

Hi there,

I am wondering if there is any updated timeline for this add in.

Thank you!
Don

2

General Board / Re: Poor Visual Quality of Diagrams generated to W

« on: November 26, 2014, 04:04:11 am »

Good news!

I got a hold of a (loaned) physical laptop and was able to generate the documents with good quality images (comparable to v9).

The theories are:
1) that the printer driver(s) on the remote desktop connection Virtual Machine (VM) affects how .emf and .wmf images are generated.
2) the display driver on the remote desktop connection VM affects how .emf and .wmf images are generated.

At this point, the plan to proceed is to roll it out on one of our existing (physical) machines, verify that images are generating at the necessary level of quality and then roll it out to the rest of the group.

Thank you for listening and your comments.  Hopefully this helps anyone else who experiences this.

Don

3

General Board / Re: Poor Visual Quality of Diagrams generated to W

« on: November 25, 2014, 08:14:51 am »

Hi there,

I have an example of existing databases we generated from here and how they look and I downloaded the .EAP file that I found on the related page and generated the document from v11 (which is a VM I am connected to through remote desktop connection) then v9 (on my local machine).  If needed, I could send the .gif files along.

I haven't change the default settings re: metafile versus .BMP.  The settings I checked were under Tools->Options->General Clipboard is Metafile.

Under Appearance, I am using the 'Enhanced - 1' Renderer with GDI Plus Metafiles selected, no scaling (0%).  I've tried the other renderer settings with GDI checked and not, same image quality.

In EA11, Theme is set to (under themes) 'Enterprise Architect 11'.  I've tried other themes, same image quality.

I've tried selecting a theme on document generate (to EA 10 and others, same image quality).  I've also changed the setting on the options tab from Metafile to Bitmap and that improved the image quality to an acceptable quality, but the .bmp doesn't look as clean as the metafile (on v9).

I've tried running the VM in full screen as opposed to windowed mode, same image quality.

I tried to be fairly thorough in looking through the available settings, but have had no luck resolving this on my own.  

I am going to check with some folks here and I'll update if I make any progress.

Thanks again for your attention and I appreciate any ideas/suggestions!  

Don

4

General Board / Poor Visual Quality of Diagrams generated to Word

« on: November 22, 2014, 02:04:32 am »

Hi there,

Evaluating the latest version of EA (11.1).

When generating from EA 11 to Word (either .rtf or .docx) the image quality is poorer than in v9.  The way it looks when generated in v11 is quite unreadable (the letters are all squished together, making the wording in the elements and titles appear blurry).

To get it to look as it did in version 9 (which is readable / acceptable), I have to right click on the image, the Edit Picture (in Word 2010), a dialog appears that says "This is an imported picture, not a group.  Do you want to convert it to a Microsoft Office drawing object?".  I click "Yes" ("No" being the other option) and the diagram is updated in a format that is readable / comparable to v9.

Having to do this for every image generated into a document every time a document is generated is not an acceptable alternative / work around.

This problems seems to me to be an issue with the way v11 renders/formats/sizes/inserts diagram images into Word.  Perhaps the code fix is in the v9 source code?

I should mention that the Edit Picture option above is available on diagrams in documents generated out of version 9 and while it does update the image to a Microsoft Office drawing object, the before and after variances are minor).  So it really seems to be isolated to the default size/format of the image when it gets added to Word.

For reference, generating to PDF does not exihibit the same behaviour, being squishing the letters together making the contents unreadable.

I've been through all the settings I can think of in EA and Word and haven't found anything to control/alter how the images show up in EA

Can anyone point me to the setting(s) that might control the output or confirm that this is a bug and/or if they've reported it and/or know of a fix?

Thank you!
Don

5

General Board / Re: EA Upgrade v9.3 to v11

« on: November 28, 2014, 03:12:49 am »

Hi there,

I am wrapping up my EA 9.0.908 to 11.1112 and SQL 2008r2 to SQL 2014 testing and so far, the only thing that I encountered was that the DBA needed to change the database permissions to allow "Set Identity" to work with the SQL 2014 database (specifically when transferring from a .EAP to a Database).

Other than that, I've connected to SQL 2014 databases with EA 9 and 11 and also connected to SQL 2008r2 with EA9 and EA11 and it all has worked without issue (no database scripts to run, nothing to change in EA to this point).

"WELL DONE!" to Sparx for delivering one of the most stable/compatible pieces of software I've ever tested (considering two major revisions and I don't know how many db versions skipped).

Don

6

General Board / Re: CSV Export

« on: November 28, 2014, 03:22:26 am »

Hi,

As far as I know, exporting Tagged values is not available via CSV exporter in version 9... I think it was added in 10.

I am running v9.0.908, so I'm not sure if the "Add Tagged Value Fields" is available in the CSV Import/Export Specification window... it's not in v 9.0.908

I hope that helps!
Don

7

General Board / How EA works with version control and a database

« on: November 26, 2014, 09:00:54 am »

Hi there,

I want to make sure that I understand how EA works with a version control tool (e.g. TFS) and a database (e.g. MS SQL).

When a package is controlled by TFS and checked out, the act of checking out takes the .xml information and saves it to the SQL database so that edits are possible.

Once the edits are complete, checking in then takes the database information and writes out the XML?

I looked through the help and couldn't find an explanation.

I thought that checking the files out marked the .xml files in read only then writes them out.

In investigating some data concurrency issues, it makes sense that it would import the database information from the .xml and then write it out again.

If anyone is able to confirm or correct the information here, I would appreciate it.

Thank you!
Don

8

General Board / Re: Warning opening EA11 generated Word documents

« on: November 25, 2014, 03:55:34 am »

Thanks Ben,

I am using build 1112 and I don't see this as something that will adversely affect us overall.

I appreciate the information you provided!

Thank you,
Don

9

General Board / Warning opening EA11 generated Word documents

« on: November 22, 2014, 02:55:29 am »

When I open documents that EA generates I get this warning:
"The file contains custom XML elements which are no longer supported by Word.  If you save this file, these custom XML elements will be removed permanently.  (a checkbox for "Don't show this message again" is offered along with "OK" and "Help" buttons.

Is this a new "feature" when generating documents using EA11?
This knowledge base article seems to indicate that EA may be writing something in the .xml that is no longer supported.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2445060

I can suppress the dialog ongoing, but I don't recall having to do with EA9 to Word.  Not a big deal, but I'm wondering what exactly is being removed and what the impact is (if any).

Any insight is appreciated.

Thanks,
Don

10

General Board / Microsoft Database upgrade component

« on: November 07, 2014, 01:55:36 am »

Hi there,

We are planning to migrate/upgrade our Microsoft SQL databases from 2008 to 2014 and are wondering if there is any database impact (e.g. are there any SQL scripts that Sparx recommends to maintain DB integrity of the EA databases)?  Or, can someone confirm/speculate that nothing more than the Microsoft tools are required for a successful upgrade.

Thanks in advance!
Don

11

General Board / Upgrade v9 to v11; server-based model repositories

« on: May 10, 2014, 02:53:07 am »

Hi there,

I am wondering if there's any documentation regarding upgrade paths from version to version (e.g. v9 to v11) for EA, which includes information on upgrading server-based model repositories (e.g. Microsoft SQL server), if applicable.

Thanks!
Don

12

Bugs and Issues / Re: Diagram size in generated RTF document

« on: January 10, 2015, 07:55:25 am »

Hi Charles,

I am experiencing a similar issue (and I am using v9 b908).

I am trying to generate documents to Tabloid (aka Ledger aka 11 by 17 inch) paper size.

The diagrams I've created were on a Tabloid (11 by 17) sized diagram (setting the diagram options to Tabloid, 11 by 17).

What I've found (after hours of testing) is that there is some kind of 'wrapping' effect if the diagram elements are stretched too far to the right edge.

The 'wrapping' effect is as follows:
- If I stretch an element (e.g. a BPMN pool or a lane) to the page demarking the edge of the Tabloid page, it reduces the width of the image in Word by about 3.5 inches (approx. 9 cm) left (or about 22%) which is a lot of waste.
- If I reduce the width of a pool or lane by about 1 inch (2.5 cm), leaving about an inch on the right side of the diagram, it increases the width of the image in Word by about 3.5 inches.
- If I reduce the width of a pool or lane by about 2 inches (5 cm) leaving about two inches on the right side of the diagram, it decreases the width of the image in Word by about 2 inches (which is what I would expect).

To summarize the behavior, it seems like stretching the elements on a diagram works until there is an element that is less than once inch (2.54 cm) ("buffer" zone) from the right edge of the page marker.  Once an element enters the "buffer" zone on the right, the image gets truncated to a maximum of 11.5 inches (approx.) in Word, even though there is room for the image to fit in the page.

The widest image I can get generated into word is about 15 inches, which forces be to use a 1 inch margin in the page layout (otherwise it doesn't look balanced in Word with Left Justification, which I use because dragging to increase the image size when an image is centered in Word is a bit odd).

Charles, as a work around for now, you can try moving the elements out of the bottom zone to see if the image size in Word starts to fit (if you had anything in that zone).

Can anyone else confirm that they've had similar issues (bottom or right size fitting) or someone from Sparx let us know if this is a known issue?

Thank you,
Don

13

Bugs and Issues / Missing notes and anonymous elements in generation

« on: November 22, 2014, 03:50:24 am »

Hi there,

I've been generating same projects from EA 9 and EA 11 side by side and noticed that <anonymous> and "Note" elements are being excluded from the document.

It seems like the Generate Documentation, Options tab, "Hide <Anonymous> elements" is checked / turned on even though it is not selected which may also be affecting the note elements that are on the diagrams.

I tried turning on the "Hide <Anonymous> elements" and it didn't make a difference.

Seems like this was working in EA9 but is unhooked in EA11?  Or maybe they've changed the feature so that they are permanently removed?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Don

14

Bugs and Issues / Re: HTML report with IE 11

« on: November 22, 2014, 02:07:09 am »

Hi there,

I've been evaluating version 11.1 and have confirmed this to be fixed.

Thank you for all your information!
Don

15

Bugs and Issues / Re: HTML report with IE 11

« on: November 11, 2014, 03:42:27 am »

Hi there,

I have a solution for you.

Once the HTML is generated, perform the following steps before distributing the files to your customer:
1.      Generate the HTML package per normal then
2.      Open the folder where it is generated with windows explorer (assuming you're using windows).
3.      Right click ‘Index.htm’ then choose Open With… -> Notepad (or whatever text editor you like) from the context menu
4.      Find the <head> tag and add a new (blank) line after the <head> tag
5.      Copy the following html onto the blank line:
<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=7" />
6.      Save and Exit the file, then double click the index.htm file to open it

Sparx: this won't work forever; it would be great if you updated the HTML generator so that it generates the index.htm with support for new browsers.

I hope that it works for you!
Don

P.S. if your customers are using SharePoint (or other content hosting software), creating a folder in the document list then opening the folder in explorer view, then copying the files over makes it a nice way for them to share the contents internally (shared network) rather than them e-mailing the (.zipped) files or putting them on a file share internally.  At least we've done that here and it works well).