Architecture Visio stencil like toolset

[Guillaume]

In the recent 15.2 build, a full image set has been included for Google, Azure and AWS Cloud solutions.
This is great for architects who need to create user friendly views, re-using the known image assets.

There is a gap to fill for On Premises, internal infrastructures. Would it be possible to introduce an image library matching the Visio stencil images e.g. to reproduce something like on the following link that I randomly took off the web:
https://www.uml-diagrams.org/network-architecture-diagrams.html

I have a number of clients who built an Enterprise Architecture model with Archimate and EA. They would like to create views where Archimate elements e.g. a Node, Firewall or Device can be represented with an alternate image matching the Visio rendering that architects very often use.

I guess there's an alternative to create its own set of free to use images that could be picked up from the web, however having these built-in EA would be much better.

[Paolo F Cantoni]

+10

Paolo

[Sunshine]

We use ArchiMate elements as our base metamodel and use the sparx image library when we want to represent the elements with graphics.
https://www.sparxsystems.com/resources/image_library.html.


The other alternative is to create your own library using some clipart library which is quite easy

• Drag and drop image onto sparx ea diagram
• rename diagram
• Repeat 1 and 2 until all images added
• export images into xml file

This means the xml file needs to be imported to each EA project


Alternatives are to create an;

• MDG file and have a central config area for all users to reference
• Image Asset library

[KP]

Here's how I would do this. Drag image files from the file system onto an EA diagram and choose to create "Image Asset". Repeat 600 times (or however many images you have). Organize all your image assets neatly into packages and sub-packages. Save as XMI. Create an MDG Technology with a <ModelTemplates> section to import your XMI from the model wizard, and - here's the important bit - mark the pattern as a framework (isFramework="true" - search for "isFramework" in the help for full instructions). This will mean it doesn't have GUIDs stripped on import. To use, deploy your technology, import the image library from the model wizard, drag and drop images from the browser to a diagram choosing "Add as element with image".

[skiwi]

There is a gap to fill for On Premises, internal infrastructures. Would it be possible to introduce an image library matching the Visio stencil images ...  matching the Visio rendering that architects very often use.

fantastic idea, this would be so useful
+1 as many tiems as it takes

[Guillaume]

Whilst there is a way to build a custom image toolset and use it in EA, I believe that having it built-in in EA is much more convenient.
Is there perhaps something to do with rights to incorporate suitable architecture images in EA contrary to AWS, Azure and Google ones? If not, this is definitely something that will help for technical architects.

Thanks