Version 10 - Easier and Faster Diagramming with Ribbon and Macros

It is only 6 months ago when the previous major version 9 was released and now it’s time for the next big leap – Software Ideas Modeler 10. The new version will bring the diagramming and software modeling on a new level and try to convince you that it is a best UML (and not only UML) modeling solution for you.

Ribbon

The most visible changes are always in user interface – today it is really great one – ribbon, which replaces the long and nested menus. It makes the individual features more accessible, saves your mouse clicks and your time of course. Your work with the software will be smoother and faster. However, we will not push you – if you don’t like the ribbon interface, it’s nothing easier than right click on the ribbon and choose Classic menu from the context menu. Old good menus are still there. Moreover, they are improved. Ribbon and also menus (if you choose them to use) offer user customization. You can choose, which items to show, which to hide, their order and the way they are grouped. To put it simply, you can define your own ribbon and your own menus – total freedom.

Software Ideas Modeler 10 - Main Screen

Quick Action Bar

Software Ideas Modeler was developed for many years and it got a lot of useful features over time. Sometimes, it may happen that you cannot find some specific feature (especially if it is not the commonly used one). The version 10 solves also this problem – using quick action bar – a small box in the right top corner of the application window. Just type a part of feature name and the results will show in the drop down list. Quick action bar combines multiple tools. Except from searching for features, it allows you to find folder, diagram or element in your project or open another existing project.

Quick Action Bar

Macros

Do you perform several steps again and again? In that case, macros will save your time. Start recording and program will record sequence of your steps to a macro. Then you can adjust it and save it. Now you can run it and perform the complicated action on a single click. You can save your macros as global to your profile or include it to a project.

Macros

Layouts

New version makes designing a user interface easier. New elements were added – panel, toolbar, area and paragraph. New container layout options may also help. You can choose for a container (window, panel, etc.) one of three layouts: stack, flow or table. When you put an element to a container with one of these layouts, they will be automatically positioned according to layout rules. And this is not everything about layout, you can set anchors and docking to borders for nested elements.

Formatted text

Formatted text got a big boost with tenth version. Text, paragraphs and tables can be styled with pre-defined styles. You can increase or decrease space between paragraphs, adjusts line spacing, set background color of paragraph and its border. Increasing or decreasing font size is simple, just on one click. Do you need subscript or superscript, Software Ideas Modeler will manage it now.

Single click in text select the cursor position, double click will select the whole word. These actions managed the previous versions. The news is triple click – it allows you to select the whole paragraph.

Tagged values

Tagged values define additional custom information to elements. Simple text and a reference to a project element were supported as a value. New version adds other types: integer, decimal, date, enumeration and formatted text. Moreover you can define default tagged values for each element type.

Tagged Values Manager

Use Case Editor

If you do often use case analysis, you will be pleased with latest enhancements in the use case editor. Editor is optimized for control using keyboard as well as using mouse. You can insert a new flow event after the current one using Ctrl+Enter, if you want to insert it before or insert a nested event, press Ctrl+Plus. Hierarchy of flow events can be indented or outdented. You can move the selected events freely using drag&drop. Also the work with clipboard is supported, it is possible to copy flow events from one use case to another.

Advanced Renaming

If you want to rename one or multiple elements by a special rule, you can do it easily with the new feature Adjust Names. It supports several renaming rules as Camel Case, Pascal Case, etc.

Renaming Helpers

Easy Accessible Documentation

Documentation of diagram elements is accessible easier than before. Just one click on the documentation indicator icon and a small floating window with the documentation will appear.

Documentation

Navigation Sidebar

Navigation Sidebar allows you to find a text in your project and navigate fast through the several results.

Navigation

Connector Drag&Drop Preview

Drag and drop of relationships and connectors was missing something in the previous versions – the good preview of what will be inserted to the diagram. Version 10 solves this problem. Together with the longer existing feature of auto-connect will give you a powerful tool.

Connector Preview

Release Notes

New Features and Improvements

Added ribbon
Added macros

Macro recording
Visual macro editor

Quick Action Bar

Find element
Find diagram [RQ#431]
Find folder
Execute application action
Open another project

Added File page
Reorganized context menus in diagram editor
Customizable ribbon (Professional/Ultimate)
Customizable menu (Professional/Ultimate)
Improved shortcut keys setting
Added Navigation sidebar
Added documentation indicator icon [RQ#393]
Documentation can displayed and edited after clicking on documentation indicator icon
Added snapping to predefined border positions [RQ#387]
Added container auto layouts (each with additional settings)

Stack layout
Flow layout
Table layout

Added dock styles (none, left, right, top, bottom, fill)
Added anchor styles (left, right, top, bottom)
Added new elements to UI diagram:

Panel
Toolbar
Area
Paragraph (3 types: Lorem Ipsum, Schematic Waves, Schematic Lines)

Improved design of UI Window element
Added new flowchart elements:

Extract
Merge
Connector
Or Junction
Summing Junction
Delay
Preparation
Display
User Operation
Sort
Collate
Database
Multi-Document
Alternate Process
Transfer
Off-Page Connector

Drawings are selected after inserting to a diagram
New formatted text commands (available as ribbon buttons):

Increase/decrease paragraph indent
Increase/decrease space between paragraphs
Increase/decrease font size
Added more line spacing options
Insert row above/below selected row
Insert column on left/right of selected column
Paragraph background color
Paragraph borders

Added support for export documentation to DOCX format
Improved mouse wheel scrolling for some controls
Model path bar can be collapsed using a button on it
Option to display/hide the tab bar
Added Fit to Window action
Added Fit to Width action
Added Fit to Height action
Added new zoom options to menu: 1:1, Zoom In and Zoom Out
Improved the window with open windows (All Open Windows) - now it supports closing of one or more windows
New selection option - Select Parent Container (Home/Editing/Select/Select Parent Container)
Stereotypes can be added or removed using ribbon/menu
Adjust names of elements/fields

Camel Case
Pascal Case
Spaced Words
Add Hyphens
Add Underscores
Invert Case
Lower Case
Upper Case
Capitalize First
Remove Whitespaces

Documents can be added to any folder (not only to the project root) [RQ#75]
Improved sidebar handling (especially panel resizing)
New sidebar context menu for sidebar - added new actions: Autosize, Maximize, Minimize, Close All, Close All But This
Inserting project element links to formatted text box using auto complete list (displays on pressing @)
Text background is rendered antialiased for rotated text
Item can be selected using double click (without clicking on OK button) in Picker dialogs
Added multiplicity for operation return type
Add new option Show Special Indicators which shows icons for Use Case Design Scope, Goal Level and State
Enhanced use case definition

Added Scope Name field
Added Stakeholders

Use case flow events can be indented and outdented
Use case flow events can be inserted also above the selected one
Use case flow events can be copied and pasted
New flow events can be inserted above, below or as a sub event using CTRL+Plus
New flow event can be inserted below the selected one using CTRL+Enter
Added context menu to use case flow events editor
Added drag&drop support to use case flow events editor
Added paragraph styles (formatted text) [RQ#149]
Added table styles (formatted text)
Added subscript and superscript formatting
Improved table formatting in formatted text
Improved table handling in formatted text editor
Support for multiple cell selection in table in formatted text editor
Support for triple click to select a whole paragraph in formatted text editor
Further improvements of handling provided and required interfaces
Adjusted project tree expansion in Link dialog (diagram nodes are collapsed by default)
Formatted text can be pasted from the clipboard to a diagram
Elements are copied also as a text to the clipboard
Styles for element categories: entities, relationships, drawings, containers
One style class supports multiple styles for different element types or categories
Supported changing of style type in style set editor
Added style previews to style list box
After direct opening Properties dialog on Documentation tab, text editor is focused
Enhanced Use Case documentation template
New setting - default repository level
Added new element style option - Text Shadow
Custom caption for link
New diagram icons
Diagram export to SVG supports bitmaps
Slightly changed style set file format
Allowed to edit link in formatted text
Definition of default tagged values
Add new types of tagged values: integer, decimal, date, boolean, formatted text, enumerated value
Improved cancelling the current action with ESC key
Edited sequence message can be confirmed with Enter and cancel with ESC
Attribute modifiers ID, Read-Only, Union, Derived, Sequence can be set using the context menu
Operation modifiers Query, Ordered, Unique can be set using the context menu
Added an example project (Help / Example Project) [RQ#441, RQ#299]
Improved inserting a sequence message over a fragment
Displaying preview of inserting relationship
Better styling support for UML Interaction Operand
Added autocomplete of enumeration values to object attributes

Fixed Bugs

Fixed container area of UI Window - title bar is excluded now
Fixed rare application crash when rendering gradient background of element
Fixed application crash when using Make Same commands and nothing is selected
Fixed resetting displaying description and field description when using Show Parts/Reset to defaults
Fixed applying filters defined in a project from Diagram menu
Fixed default naming of SysML diagrams - the index number of diagram was increased by two
Fixed non-working relation filter
Fixed selection after using shaping commands or removing fields
Fixed sorting operation by visibility descending and by type descending
Fixed unfocused scrolling using mouse wheel for Styles panel
Fixed detached relationship end on rotated non-rectangular elements
Fixed inserting UML Communication Messages using drag&drop
Fixed clipping tables in formatted text boxes
Fixed rendering the text added to a drawing
Fixed positions of grips for points of a rotated shape
Fixed rendering of element with custom presentation style
Fixed scroll position in toolbox after switching from long toolbox to short toolbox
Fixed dropping a drawing from the sidebar to a container
Fixed uncentered page at initial displaying of documentation
Fixed selection of element when it is over an already selected element
Fixed adding some elements to some containers
Fixed rendering of field selection and grips
Fixed navigating to hidden column when editing in grid
Fixed typing/inserting a text before a link on beginning of formatted text
Fixed clipping table in formatted text box
Fixed application crash when exporting sketchy style graphics to SVG
Fixed application crash when pasting a formatted text with table to diagram
Fixed incorrectly placed text when exporting to SVG
Fixed handling objects in formatted text when it is zoomed
Fixed deleting elements when deleting repository and elements are used on other diagrams - now the used elements are moved from the deleted repository to the project repository
Fixed resizing type picker when window is resized
Fixed word navigation (CTRL+Left and CTRL+Right) in formatted text
Fixed application crash when using compare by name method for project comparison
Fixed displaying associated diagrams indicator
Fixed setting a color from HEX value in color picker
Fixed small issues in text rendering
Fixed omitting link text in export documentation
Fixed rendering text with page break when previous page ends with a space
Fixed adjusting view of formatted text editor after inserting or deleting a page break
Fixed problem with selecting some tools in toolbox when the toolbox is filtered
Fixed saving stereotype definitions
Fixed showing diagram frame after confirming Diagram Properties dialog even if Show frame is unchecked
Fixed application crash after adding rows (and no columns) to UI Diagram Grid
Fixed tab refresh after renaming a folder
Fixed moving Actor lifeline when dragging the header part
Fixed editing Interaction Operand guard after clicking on it in diagram editor
Fixed drawing UI element from right to left or from down to up
Fixed incorrect resizing of toolbox by DPI
Fixed unwanted adding to container when moving group of containers
Fixed zooming with CTRL+mouse wheel in Folder Overview (scrolling was not suppressed during zooming)
Fixed positioning of multiple pasted elements when they are copied from container
Fixed flowchart shapes for direct data and stored data
Fixed losing last editing of a use case flow event when editor is open in a separate window
Fixed refreshing canvas when drawing a line
Fixed moving Use Case editor window back to the main window