4.1 Diagram Editor
The Diagram Editor
is a tool for
creating, managing and maintaining graphs as
diagrams.
With a Diagram Editor you can view and edit graphs as well as make or view
explosions and decompositions between several graphs. Basically, except for the
notation of the selected modeling language, the tool always looks the same. For
example, in
Figure 4–1 we have two
Diagram Editors open, containing different types of graph, i.e. graphs from
different languages.
Figure 4–1. Two Diagram Editors.
The
Diagram Editor window (
Figure 4–2)
consists of five parts: menu bar, toolbar area, drawing area, sidebar and status
bar.
Figure 4–2. Diagram Editor.
The toolbar area can show
up to three toolbars: action tools, object types and relationship types (
Figure 4–3). The object and
relationship toolbars change according to the current language to show the
available object and relationship types in that language. The commands on the
action toolbar are fixed, and are (from left to right):
Generate,
Print,
Cut,
Copy,
Paste,
Undo,
Redo,
Align to Grid,
Scroll,
Zoom,
Default Zoom,
Zoom
to Fit and
Delete. Depending on the modeling language and generator
definitions in use, buttons for executing specific generators may also appear on
the action toolbar. They will be grouped on the right side of the
Delete
button.
The buttons in the object type and relationship type
toolbars represent the types of the current modeling language, and therefore
change from language to language. Pressing these buttons will initiate the
creation of the respective object or relationship type. Please note that there
is also a separate generic relationship button, ‘Relationship’,
between the object and relationship buttons. This initiates the creation of any
relationship type: the type of the relationship instance is determined from
context, or prompted from the user when the creation is confirmed.
The visibility of the toolbars in each Diagram Editor
window can be set from the
View | Toolbar menu. Default visibility and
layout of toolbars can be set in the Options Tool (see Section
3.1.3).
Figure 4–3. Diagram Editor toolbars.
The drawing area
is the main component of the Diagram Editor, and is used for creating and
managing diagram elements. Diagram elements are graphical representations of
conceptual model elements such as objects or relationships. The sidebar on the
left side of the Diagram Editor provides an alternative interactive tree-view to
the design data shown in the drawing area and a property sheet for viewing and
editing properties of the currently selected element or those of current graph
itself. The status bar at the bottom of the window shows the currently active
diagram element and its subgraphs, possible help text for the currently active
tool mode, the grid setting and current zoom
factor.