EA diagram practice
I briefly looked at the basics of using EA in my previous post, but I thought it was necessary to cover it in more depth. So this time, I would like to explain the process of drawing a simple diagram as a EA diagram practice.
Our goal is to draw a Block Definition Diagram that represents the SysML diagram classification system as shown below.
(For reference, it may be helpful to read the following documents provided by sparx: https://sparxsystems.com/resources/user-guides/16.1/basics/tutorial.pdf)
EA diagram practice 1 : Creating a project and changing perspective
1. First, you need to create a new project and set it to SysML. You can find an eyeball icon in the top right corner of the screen. You can change your perspective by clicking this icon. Change ‘Systems Engineering’ to ‘SysML’.
2. If you only want to display SysML in the Perspective menu, go to ‘Settings…’ You can disable other languages in ‘.
EA diagram practice 2 : Create Package or View under Root-Node
1. Create a package or view under Root-Node in the browser. If you want to change the name of an element, you can click on the element and press F2 to edit the name. I changed the name of Root-Node to ‘SysML’.
2. Next, click the folder-shaped button on the browser to create a package named ‘taxonomy’.
EA diagram practice 3 : Adding blocks to the ‘taxonomy’ package
1. In general, it is common to create a Block Definition Diagram first and complete the diagram by adding blocks on top of it. But this time, we’ll start by assuming that you already have some idea of the types of SysML diagrams. In this case, you can right-click on the ‘taxonomy’ package and select ‘add Element’ to create an element before creating the diagram.
2. When you select ‘add Element’, a pop-up window like the one above will appear. Here, we will create a total of four blocks, including the top block ‘SysML Diagram’, ‘Package Diagram’, ‘Behavior Diagram’, and ‘Structure Diagram’.
3. You can create 4 blocks in succession using the ‘Save’ function. The default settings are BDD (Block Definition Diagram) and Block, so just enter the name and click ‘Save’ to create four blocks.
EA diagram practice 4 : Creating a new BDD
1. Use the ‘New Diagram’ function to create a Block Definition Diagram (BDD) named ‘diagram hierarchy’. If you don’t see BDD in Diagram Types, make sure Type is set to SysML.
2. Now the BDD has been created on the canvas. Every SysML diagram has a Frame Header, which has the following format: [Current Diagram Type] [Current Diagram’s Context] [Current Diagram’s Context] [Current Diagram’s Name] [Current Diagram’s Name].
3. For example, the bdd we created:
- [current diagram type] = bdd
- [Context of the current diagram, element containing the diagram] = package
- [name of element containing current diagram] = taxonomy
- [name of current diagram] = hierarchy
In other words, bdd, called hierarchy, is a diagram that expresses the relationship between blocks within a package element called taxonomy.
EA diagram practice 5 : Adding blocks to BDD
1. Now, let’s add the four blocks we created earlier to the ‘diagram hierarchy’ BDD we created. To do this, blocks are placed on the BDD by dragging and dropping them.
2. Select the ‘Drop as: Link’ option on the ‘paste Package Diagram’ and click ‘Select For All’ to add all blocks to the BDD at once.
EA diagram practice 6 : Element alignment and generalization connector connection
1. First, arrange the elements nicely using sophisticated mouse control. This step is important for the readability and overall organization of the diagram.
2. Next, each element must be connected to the Generalization connector. Generalization is similar to inheritance relationships in object-oriented programming. Simply connect the connector from the inherited object (child) to the inherited object (parent).
3. As shown in the image above, the diagram is completed when the elements are connected with the Generalization connector. In EA, connectors only connect between two elements, making it difficult to organize connectors neatly. It may be a hassle to organize each connector one by one.
4. In the example image, right-clicking on the connector changed it from ‘Line Style’ to ‘TreeStyle-Vertical’ and overlapped them so that they appear as one.
EA diagram practice 7 : Add a new Block
1. Select ‘block’ in the Toolbox and click on the diagram to create a new block. Let’s name this Block ‘Requirement Diagram’.
2. By holding down the Ctrl key and left-clicking the mouse, you can additionally create the last created element (here, Block). Add 7 blocks using this method. The blocks created at this time are created with meaningless names such as ‘BlockX’, so click on each block and change the name in the Properties window. If the Properties window is not visible, go to ‘Start’ → ‘All Windows’ → ‘Properties’ to create it.
EA diagram practice 8 : Setting up diagram tasks
1. Go to ‘Start’ → ‘Appearance’ → ‘Preferences’ and set ‘Link’ → ‘Generalization link style’ to ‘Default = Tree’. In this way, when connecting connectors, they are automatically connected in tree form.
2. Also, instead of loading a connector every time from Toolbox, click the upward arrow (Quick Linker) that appears when you click on a block, then drag and release it to the block you want to connect to. This will give you a list of possible connections allowed by SysML. Here select ‘Generalization’.
EA diagram practice 9 : Add and connect ‘Useless Block’
1. First, add a block named ‘Useless Block’. This block is for practice only and is not part of the actual diagram.
2. Next, let’s connect this ‘Useless Block’ with other elements of the diagram in arbitrary relationships. This will result in a diagram like the following:
EA diagram practice 10 : Practice deleting Useless Block
1. Create a bdd named ‘practice’ in the taxonomy package, and copy and add the ‘SysML Diagram’ and ‘Useless’ blocks.
2. In practice bdd, delete the ‘Useless’ block by pressing the Delete key. This causes the connector between the ‘Useless’ block and ‘SysML Diagram’ to disappear from the diagram. However, the ‘Useless’ block still exists in Browser and diagram hierarchy bdd. In other words, deleting from the diagram only hides the element.
3. Drag and paste the ‘Useless’ block from the browser back into practice bdd, or click the ‘SysML Diagram’ block and add ‘Useless’ again through ‘Design → Element → Add Element → Related Element’.
4. To permanently delete the ‘Useless’ block from the repository, right-click on the block in the browser, select ‘Delete element name’, and click ‘Yes’ in the pop-up. After this operation, you can see that the ‘Useless’ block has disappeared from all Browser, diagram hierarchy bdd, and practice bdd.
5. When deleting a connector, select the connector on the diagram, press the Delete key, and select Hide or Delete. To show a hidden connector again, click on the connected element and select ‘Show Relation’ via ‘Relationships’ in the ‘Inspector’ window, or find ‘Related → Links’ in the element status window and click ‘Show Relation’.
Outro of EA diagram practice
We completed the EA diagram practice that is drawing a simple SysML Block Definition Diagram using EA. EA can be used to draw a variety of diagrams in SysML, and the basic method does not differ much. However, as modeling becomes more complex, SysML becomes more difficult and it can become difficult to find the desired features among EA’s many features. This is something that can make the modeling process difficult.
In the next post, we will discuss in detail the function that allows you to view diagrams in various views in EA.
If you are interested in other articles about the basic usage of Enterprise Architect, please refer to the links below!
[Enterprise Architect] #15. Export Documents and HTML of EA
[Enterprise Architect] #14. Trace and Navigation, Relation, composition
[Enterprise Architect] #13. Project Browser and Focus Window
[Enterprise Architect] #12. Useful functions creating diagrams with EA
[Enterprise Architect] #11. Diagram Filters and Layers of EA
[Enterprise Architect] #10. Diagram views of EA
[Enterprise Architect] #8. EA basic usage
[Enterprise Architect] #7. EA Modeling Component
[Enterprise Architect] #6. Publish Ribbon of EA
[Enterprise Architect] #5. Layout Ribbon of EA
[Enterprise Architect] #4. Design Ribbon of EA
[Enterprise Architect] #3. Start Ribbon of EA
[Enterprise Architect] #2. Organizing your EA work Desktop
[Enterprise Architect] #1. Useful features of the basic menu of EA (File Management & Explore Panel)