New Roadmap Diagram - How to add elements?

[ssands]

This must be so obvious it is escaping me, but I don't see it in the Help page. http://sparxsystems.com/enterprise_architect_user_guide/12.1/project_management/roadmap_diagram.html.

I can select Roadmap options and set up the axis for the roadmap. But how to I add elements to place on the roadmap and how do I set up segments on those elements?

If it is presented elsewhere in the Help file then there should be a link from the roadmap page.

(Or maybe I just keep missing it?)

[RoyC]

My apologies - the solution is so simple it 'just happened' and so didn't get a mention in amongst all the weighty matters.

We have actually rewritten that Help topic to make it clearer what you do once you have set up the Roadmap Timeline. It will be published in the next release.

You have set up the timeline and have a diagram containing the timeline with major and minor graduations along it. Now drag an element icon (say, for a Class) from the Diagram Toolbox and drop it under the Timeline. Resize and move the element so that it spans the start and end markers you have defined. Do the same again for as many other elements as you want to put on the Roadmap.

Now drag a Diagram Legend icon from the Common page of the Toolbox and position that somewhere on the diagram. Double-click on it and define whatever properties you want to assign to the Legend element itself. THEN on the Legend Properties dialog, define the phases - for each phase, type the name in the 'Value' field, select a display color in the 'Fill color' field and click on the Save button to save the phase definition. Then select the 'Apply auto color' and 'Apply Fill' checkboxes, and click on the OK button to save the settings and close the dialog.

You will now have the elements elongated on the Timeline, each divided into equal segments of different colors as defined on the Legend dialog. Click on and drag the borders of the color segments to align them with the appropriate markers on the Timeline, as in the example diagram provided in the Help topic.

If you have any further problems, just re-post here.

[ssands]

Thank you!  In the meantime I figured it out EXCEPT for the Apply Auto Color. I missed that and wasn't clear what it would do.

Cheers!

[Glassboy]

If you have any further problems, just re-post here.

Something that is problematic is that the time gradations don't align with the page grid and I can't seem to drag a phase to be less than one month.

[RoyC]

I don't know about alignment with the grid dots at the moment, but the phase length would depend on the tick spacing. I have a unit of a year and by pushing the tick spacing out to the maximum I can get a phase down to a perhaps two days. At the narrowest tick spacing it won't reduce to less than four months. But you would have to balance the tick spacing with the amount of readable information you want to display within the area of the monitor screen. You can also create a Custom scale and define whatever (time) units and subdivisions of units you want, which might give you a more accurate representation of the length of a phase.

[Glassboy]

Fair enough on the tick spacing.  I'll have a further play.  the ticks do need to align with the grid snap tho' or alignment will be a nightmare.

[RoyC]

I'm not an engineer, but if a user can change the number of subdivisions of a unit, the tick spacing, the use/visibility of the grid and various other visibility and display options, it might prove to be hard to keep the units and sub units aligned with the grid dots.

[Glassboy]

I'm not an engineer, but if a user can change the number of subdivisions of a unit, the tick spacing, the use/visibility of the grid and various other visibility and display options, it might prove to be hard to keep the units and sub units aligned with the grid dots.

Well sometimes design decision are hard :-)

[Barrie Treloar]

Necro an old post.

But I just had the exact same problems as the original poster, 10 years later.

The documentation is not clear on how to create a roadmap diagram.
It was only through blind luck clicking on the see also links in the legend column that I noticed the auto-apply options and with some fiddling of filter setting can auto-apply the legend colours to the elements that I choose to drop onto the roadmap.

Then the next problem is alignment, the diagram grid points do not align to the tick points.
Going into preferences and fiddling the grid size is an exercise in futility, as there is no way to establish the left edge to start from.
Even if that was possible its a nightmare to eyebal the tick spaces...