Extending Archimate 3

[John Lynn]

Hello folks,

Is it possible to extend Archimate 3 to add new elements? Specifically I am exploring Capability-Based Planning which seems to add a new "Metric" element as part of Strategy. Ideally, I would like to create a new "Motivation Concept" element that has the same shape as an "Assessment" element but displays a different icon.

Thanks & Regards,
John

[Sunshine]

Yes it is you can create an MDG that extends the archimate V3 stereotypes.

[Guillaume]

You can create Archimate custom stereotypes e.g. by extending the Archimate 3 capability + Class metaclass in your UML Profile.
The only known issue is that the Quicklinker can be broken (identified as a bug to be fixed by Sparx).

[John Lynn]

Thanks guys. I've been digging through the documentation and using a UML profile to create my new elements (with some success, they now display correctly with cunning little icons).

There are two things I still haven't been able to figure out that I was hoping to get advice on:

• The UML Profile creates its own toolbox- I would like to make it a subsection of the Archimate3 toolbox (i.e. this is an extension of the Motivation diagram). Is this possible?
• I would like to restrict which connectors each element can use based on the element it is being connected to (i.e. this new element can only "Realize" a requirement, it can't aggregate it). Is this possible?

[Glassboy]

• The UML Profile creates its own toolbox- I would like to make it a subsection of the Archimate3 toolbox (i.e. this is an extension of the Motivation diagram). Is this possible?

You'll need to recreate the standard Archimate toolboxes in your MDG or potentially replace the Archimate3 MDG in your install directory.

[Sunshine]

...

• I would like to restrict which connectors each element can use based on the element it is being connected to (i.e. this new element can only "Realize" a requirement, it can't aggregate it). Is this possible?

...

Kind of via the quick links. You need to set that up in the custom MDG you'll need to create to extend ArchiMate. See help for more details. AFAIK I don't think there is anyway to restrict the connectors being used via the toolbox selection.