Topics

1

Suggestions and Requests / UML for Forum

« on: October 09, 2010, 02:03:10 am »

It is ironic that many times I want to use UML to describe my problems or suggest solutions to the forum but don't have a convenient way.

I wonder if it would be feasible for Sparx to host a repository (or repositories) for this purpose. It wouldn't have to be robust or secure. An inexperienced user (or a malicious one) could wipe out the repository. So what? Even with the occasional mishap I bet the community would benefit.

Even if that solution isn't feasible there must be some way.

2

Suggestions and Requests / Update for SysML

« on: December 23, 2008, 04:32:09 pm »

The last mention of SysML in conjunction with a release is really old. I downloaded the trial and it doesn't quite match my reference: A Practical Guide to SysML; Friedenthal, Moore, and Steiner. For example, Friedenthal, et al, describes Part, Reference, and Value properties but EA seems to have only BlockProperty. Also, it looks like the plug-in was released prior to 9/2007 when v 1.0 of the language specificaiton was released.

I also noticed that displaying the diagrams as a list isn't well supported. If you try to filter the list you'll see that the pulldown doesn't contain SysML types (Block, PartProperty, etc.).

Any improvements to SysML support coming?

Thanks,
Dan

3

Suggestions and Requests / Non-transition event processing

« on: August 01, 2008, 04:21:18 am »

I want to show events that should be processed in a state and show the effect without a tansition. Using a self-transition indicates that the exit and entry operations will be performed and that is not what I want. For now we are adding operations to the state using the name of the event as the Action, the name of the effect as the name of the operation and Event as the stereotype. For conditions, we use the action field to show the condition and stereotype as Condition. Is there a more straightforward way?

Thanks,
Dan

4

Suggestions and Requests / Enhance DDS support to transform Components

« on: July 19, 2008, 01:48:10 am »

The DDS transform demo looks compelling but I think it could be made better. DDS provides a way to connect components so why not have a transfmoration that creates everything needed based on component or composite diagrams? The current support exposes a lot of details regarding DDS configuration and is a good view for that purpose. However, my real job is creating systems of components so I'd like a view that abstarcts the DDS details to just boards, components, traces and ports (domains, participants, topics, writers/readers). Transforming between the two views would be very nice!

I'm actually starting to do this on my own but I'd rather just buy it (for $1 US  ).

Thanks,
Dan

5

Suggestions and Requests / Multi-diagram page support

« on: July 03, 2008, 05:41:20 am »

Call me old school but I'd like to see support for one diagram spanning multiple pages. I suppose no one prints anything out anymore but I do. I would like to use 11x17 paper rather than D size so I need line continuation from page to page. Even D size can get cramped.

Purists that would say that if I need more than one page to describe the design it is too complex. Save it. I'm not building a coffee machine.

Thanks,
Dan

6

Suggestions and Requests / Control over label placement on transitions

« on: June 20, 2008, 07:24:01 am »

Is there a way to designate the segment of a transtion that the label should be anchored to? I would like transition labels to be close to the *from* state. The labels can be dragged anywhere but when you move the achore segment the label also moves. Sometimes the label then appears to be associated with a different transition entirely.

Thanks,
Dan

7

Suggestions and Requests / Switch between state diag and table w/o checkout

« on: May 28, 2008, 10:42:15 am »

It would be nice to switch between state diagram and table representations without having to check out the package.

Thanks,
DanG

8

Suggestions and Requests / Improve Compare with Controlled Version

« on: May 24, 2008, 04:07:11 am »

Perforce is the CM software.
Use Package Control to check out a package
Make changes (not necessary to see the hang but this is the use case)
Try to review your changes before submitting
Package Control->Compare with Controlled Version... hour glass...

I think a work-around is to configure p4 to clobber the package file but I'm certain that will eventually cause me to lose work. I know I will Get Latest at the wrong moment and, even though it pops up warnings, I'll wipe out some brilliant changes.

Here is the request: Automatically compare against a temporary version of the file from the repository.

Thanks, DanG

9

Suggestions and Requests / Local Paths support for any type

« on: May 23, 2008, 10:23:20 am »

Is there a way to specify a local path for linked files?

Web links don't quite meet my needs and I use p4 to version control the documents and, by side effect, distribute them. If I could define a local path type then I could link to file just like I link to source code.

Example:
A visio drawing has a very useful graphic in it and I'd like to link it to a use case element. The visio file is checked into perforce and I see it at D:\dev\ProjectX\Models\Requirements\foo.vsd. Other colaborators see it in different local paths but always under ...\Models\Requirements. Thus, I'd set MODEL_REC_DOCS to D:\dev\ProjectX\Models\Requirements. Other colaborators would set MODEL_REC_DOCS according to their local tree. Thus, the links would work for us all.

Thanks,
Dan

10

General Board / Show Behavior in Diagram Formatting

« on: July 26, 2013, 02:16:39 am »

Does anyone know how to make behavior text show nicely in state charts? I'm talking about the result of entering text in the Behavior in an operation properties dialog and ticking the "Show Behavior in Diagram" box. The text is rendered with leading white space removed.

Managing the code in the Behavior box is terribly inconvenient. Does anyone have a plug-in? An action language editor integration?

Thanks,
Dan

11

General Board / SysML flow ports compartment suppression

« on: May 05, 2012, 05:32:08 am »

How can I suppress the SysML Block flow ports compartment? When I show the block with embedded elements visible I don't need the compartment on.

Thanks,
Dan

12

General Board / Willful Transition Lines

« on: October 07, 2010, 04:31:17 am »

I have a pattern that involves a super state transition to sub state. I drag the transition from the super state and EA happily draws the arrow. Unfortunately, this arrow has a mind of its own and is not easily made to conform to my aesthetic desires. There is some amount of predictable behavior but not much. The only way I've been able to get the look I desire is to "walk" the arrow into position by alternately pinning and unpinning the ends until it is position. Does anyone have a usable technique?

Thanks,
Dan

13

General Board / Making Hidden Transitions Reappear

« on: October 07, 2010, 04:40:16 am »

I have lots of transitions that happen to go between the same two states in a state chart. I would rather not see every one of the lines but do want to see the transition specification (event, guard, action) for each. Is there an easy way to achieve this goal? Carefully placing the lines on top of each other is NOT it.

One misguided attempt was to hide all but one transition. Of course, that hides the specification as well and doesn't work. Is there a way to recover from that mistake and make the transition visible again?

Thanks,
Dan

14

General Board / Import Source w/DDS add-in IDL vs CORBA add-in IDL

« on: April 29, 2010, 04:50:02 am »

DDS add-in imports IDL by making modules into a stereotyped class. CORBA add-in makes module into a package. The latter makes more sense to me. However, "makes sense" and works well do not always coincide. Does anyone see an advantage to the DDS way?

Also, the DDS import does replicates modules rather than adding elements to an existing module. For example module foo { struct goo {,...}} and module foo { struct moo {...}} gives me two modules named foo rather than one with two structs in it. That seems just plain wrong. I can move the structs manually and delete the extra modules easily enough. However, I'd hate to do that and find out I should not have...

Anyone other advise regarding the DDS add-in?

15

General Board / Reporting propertyType

« on: December 15, 2009, 07:45:01 am »

I am attempting to generate component specifications. I have flowPorts and am assigning the flow type to propertyType (Advanced->Set Property Type). I could not find a {Element.PropertyType} RTF field. Even if I did it would probably be a GUID.

How can I include the propertyType name in my report? For example,
Port Name: Foo
Port Type: FooStruct

I've got to be missing something very obvious but I'm stumped.

Thanks,
Dan