Modeling Option

Go Up to Modeling Reference

Go Up to Tools Options Dialog Box

Tools > Options > Modeling

The following pages define the Modeling Options:

• Diagram Appearance options
• Diagram Layout options
• Print Diagram options
• Diagram View Management options
• General options
• Generate Documentation options
• Model View options
• Source Code options
• Generate Sequence Diagram options

Introduction

To open the pages containing the Modeling options, choose Tools > Options and select the Modeling node from the tree in the left pane of the Options dialog box.

The Modeling node contains a hierarchical tree of Modeling options:

• This Modeling options tree contains four branches: Default, Diagram, Project, and Project Group. These branches define four hierarchical levels of Modeling options (see Hierarchical Levels of Modeling options below).

• These branches of the Modeling options tree contain the following pages with Modeling options: Appearance, Layout, Print, View Management, General, Generate Documentation, Model View, Source Code, Generate Sequence Diagram. Each page contains the group of modeling options (see Groups of Modeling Options below).

Use options on the Modeling option pages to customize the behavior of the Modeling feature.

Each option has its private detailed description. Select an option and its description will appear in the lower-right pane of the Options dialog box.

(level) in menus of Modeling options

(level) in menus, for example Tools > Options > Modeling > (level) > General, is used to specify that the General options page can be selected in the Default, Diagram, Project, or Project Group branches of the Modeling options tree. This page, in the Default branch, sets options for the IDE, in Project -- for the current project, in Project Group -- for the current project group, in Diagram -- for the current diagram. (See the next Hierarchical Levels of Modeling options section for more information).

Hierarchical Levels of Modeling options

The Modeling options tree contains four branches: Default, Project, Project group, and Diagram. The following list shows that these branches define four hierarchical levels at which we can define Modeling options:

1. Default -- The highest level. It is the superlevel of all other levels.

The Default branch defines options that will be used as the default Modeling tool options by the IDE.

Options defined at this level apply as the default options to each diagram opened or created in the IDE, but if a different setting of any particular option is defined at any of the Diagram, Project, or Project group levels, then this setting overwrites the setting defined at this Default level.

2. Diagram -- The lowest level. It is the sublevel of all other levels.

The Diagram branch defines Modeling options only for the current diagram.

The Diagram branch contains only the Appearance, Layout, Print, and View Management groups of options. These options control the behavior, appearance, and printing of one particular diagram.

Options defined in the Diagram branch overwrite corresponding options defined at all other more general levels -- Project, Project group, and Default.

3. Project -- The superlevel of the Diagram level and the sublevel of the Project Group and of Default levels, recursively.

The Project branch defines Modeling options that will be used as the default options for all diagrams in the current project.

Options defined at the Project level overwrite the corresponding options defined at two more general levels, Project group and Default, but they are overwritten for each particular diagram by corresponding options defined for this diagram at the Diagram level.

4. Project group -- The superlevel of the Diagram and Project levels and the sublevel of the Default level, recursively.

The Project group branch defines Modeling options that will be used as the default options for all diagrams in the current project group.

Options defined at the Project group level overwrite the corresponding options defined at the more general Default level, but they are overwritten for particular diagrams by the corresponding options defined for these diagrams at the Diagram and Project levels.

Notice that you can make the settings of a group of options final at a certain level and disable any changes of options in this group on the lower levels. (See To disable groups of Modeling options on sublevels of Modeling options in Configuring UML Modeling.)

Groups of Modeling Options

The following groups of Modeling options are available:

Group of options	Description
Diagram: Appearance Layout Print View Management	The Diagram group contains the following subgroups: Appearance -- options in this group control the behavior and appearance of diagrams. Layout -- options in this group control the alignment and positioning of diagram elements. Print -- options in this group control how to print diagrams. View Management -- options in this group provide filters that control types of elements displayed on different diagrams. Options in the Diagram group define the behavior and appearance of diagrams, types of elements displayed on diagrams, and how to print diagrams.
General	Options in the General group customize certain behaviors in the Modeling user interface that do not pertain to any other specific group of options, such as Diagram.
Generate Documentation	Options in the Generate Documentation group control types of elements to include or exclude from your generated HTML documentation describing diagrams.
Model View	Options in the Model View group control how to show elements of diagrams in the Model View.
Source Code	Options in the Source Code group control several parameters of real-time synchronization between UML models and source code.
Generate Sequence Diagram	Options in the Generate Sequence Diagram group control generation of sequence diagrams from the source code.

See Also

• Configuring UML Modeling