Capella Diagram Editor

Introduction

The diagram View is the main View in Capella. The palette on the right side of the diagram area is different according to the current diagram.

Once a tool is selected in the palette, holding the “CTRL” key while clicking in the diagram area will keep the tool active, so that is it possible to create several elements or links in a raw. If the “CTRL” click is not hold, then the focus is automatically set on the new created element.

Two kinds of diagrams are distinguished:

Contextual diagrams are focused on one specific element; the update of the diagram obeys to a set of predefined rules. For example, a Contextual Function Dataflow diagram will always display the current Function as well as the other Functions with which it has Functional Exchanges.
Blank diagrams are not focused on any specific element; the user is free to select the elements that should appear on the diagram. Nevertheless, some calculated elements will still appear automatically on blank diagrams: for example, Ports on Functions still appear automatically on the diagram if the Function is displayed.

Note: Blank diagrams can be unsynchronized: in that case for example, Ports on Functions would not appear automatically. When a diagram is unsynchronized, new Insert / Remove tools become available in the diagram palette. This is convenient for management of very big models. See Embedded DoReMi User Guide.

Creation of new diagrams or navigation between diagrams can be achieved through the “New” and “Open” commands of the contextual menu on the elements appearing on the diagram, directly from the browser, or from the methodological Activity Browser.

Default name of diagrams is prefixed with an acronym standing for the diagram type (for example SFBD for System Function Breakdown).

Diagram Palettes

All the palettes of Capella diagrams are organized according to the same pattern.
Sections are dedicated to a specific theme (for example, Components, Functions, Deployment, etc.) and can be folded / unfolded for a better visibility
Element creation tools are typically represented by the icon of the concerned element.
Insert/Remove tools ( ) are typically available on Blank diagrams. For example, if a component in the model is made of two sub components, the Insert/Remove tool applied on this component will allow selecting which one(s) of its sub components shall be displayed. Insert/Remove tools modify the content of the diagram but do not modify the model itself. They are displaying a double-list dialog box.
Allocation Management tools ( ) allow creating relationships between elements, for example the allocation of a Function on a Component. Allocation Management tool modify the model. They are displaying a double-list dialog box.

Diagram Toolbar

The diagram toolbar is contextual: different tools are available if a diagram or a diagram element is currently selected.

Arrange All tools (automatic layouts)
Selection tools
The refresh diagram button allows to update the diagram according to the content of the model when the automated synchronization is not activated (Control+R)
Selection of active layers
Selection of active filters
Show/Hide dialog (select which elements of the diagram are visible or not)
Pin/Unpin dialog (select which elements of the diagram cannot be moved by automatic layouts)
Paste layout on the current diagram
Zoom in
Zoom out
Zoom factor
Export the current diagram as an image
Switch on/off the layout mode on the diagram

The diagram “layout” mode disables operations likely to modify the semantic model (for example the semantic drag and drop) so that the end user can focus on layout tasks without being afraid to trigger an unexpected model update.

Focus on 5, selection of active filters

Focus on 4, selection of active layers

Diagram Element Toolbar

Arrange selected elements (partial layout)
Alignment tools
Pin selected elements
Unpin selected elements
Copy layout of selected elements
Hide selected elements
Delete selected elements from diagram
Delete selected elements from model
Police related tool : Bold
Police related tool : Italic
Police related tool : Font Color
Police related tool : Font
Color background selection
Line color
Line style
Insert image tool
Reset custom style
Apply the applicable custom settings of the first element to other selected elements
Make height and width identical for all selected elements (the referenced element is the last selected one)
Auto size

In both Bank and Contextual diagrams, some elements appear automatically. It is not possible to delete from diagram calculated elements (for example, a Function Port owned by a Function, or a Functional Exchange between two Function Ports).

If the user wants to hide a calculated element on a contextual diagram, he must use the “Show/Hide” tools.

Focus on 16: It is possible to customize the presentation of elements shown in diagrams using external images. The first step is to import image resources in the current Eclipse project. This can be achieved easily using a drag and drop in Windows.

The next step is to select in the diagram the model element to be customized and click on the “Insert image tool” of the toolbar. A dialog appears, allowing to chose among the images already present in the workspace:

The result can be the following:

Matrixes

The Diagram View is also used for Simple and Cross Tables. A CSV export tool is provided for these tables, allowing for example to retrieving allocation matrices in Excel.