The new major version - The five is coming

I am pleased to introduce a new version of Software Ideas Modeler – fifth major version. During last year and few months I worked hard on it and now it is finished. I implemented a lot of new features and improvements. Lots of them reflect your opinions, advices and suggestions. I combined with my ideas and view of the matter. New version brings more than 140 new features and improvements. New version is split to two editions: Professional and Ultimate. Professional is a continuation of forth version with its license model – it is free for non-commercial use and paid for commercial. It introduces more than 120 new features and improvements. Ultimate edition is only paid and adds other advanced features. This new model with two editions should help me to better finance the development of this project.

This version is new and introduces a lot of new features and despite the large number of manual and unit tests it can potentially contains some unknown bugs. So I recommend you to wait few weeks before you fully adopt this version.

If you have purchased the license for forth version and is valid for updates, you will receive the new license file for version 5 (which is used instead of activation keys) by e-mail within one week.

And what are the new features?

Software Ideas Modeler 5 has eight new diagrams:
+ BPMN diagrams:
+ Conversation diagram
+ Collaboration diagram
+ Choreography diagram
+ JSD diagrams:
+ Entity structure diagram
+ Network diagram
+ Entity Life History diagram
+ Hierarchical Task Analysis diagram
+ Gane & Sarson notation for DFD

New UML elements were added:
+ Activity Loop Node
+ Activity Conditional Node
+ Connector
+ Gate
+ Boundary, Control and Entity lifelines
+ Merge
+ ForkJoin element was split to Fork and Join

Added artistic text element into the group Drawing.

I think a lot of you appreciate source code parsing. Fifth version allows parsing a source code in C#, VB.NET and Java.

Control using keyboard was considerably improved. The result is a new big feature – Smart Keys, which allows creating diagrams only using your keyboard.

Project documentation can be exported to many new file formats:
+ Export to HTML
+ Export to ODT
+ Export to PDF
+ Export to RTF
+ Export to TXT

Now you can create diagrams from other databases than MS SQL. My SQL is supported directly. You can also use any other data source using OLE DB.

Reverse Engineering of .NET 4 assemblies is supported from this version and it is also improved to recognize more things.

The Element Browser is more usable now. It allows to filter elements by name and shows more information about the selected element. The elements are divided into three levels of repositories – project (single repository, highest level), model and diagram. Division to these groups is automatic and is important mainly for multiple file projects.

The work with diagrams specifically with their sizes was improved too. You can set the type of size expansion:
+ Expand in all directions
+ Expand right down
Or you can set the fixed size - A4, A3, letter, legal, etc...
If you choose the fixed size, you can also turn on the multiple page view and program automatically adds new paper of the chosen kind.

The project tree can be reordered using mouse in various ways:
+ Custom order
+ Order by name
+ Order by creation date
+ Order by type

Diagram editor has rulers. When you draw or only move the cursor, information about selection and cursor position is displayed in the status bar. Many length units are supported - pixels, millimeters, centimeters, inches.

The content of diagram could be filtered already in previous version, but in this version you can create custom filters.

Ultimate Edition

Ultimate Edition has few features in addition. You can define custom documentation templates and source code templates, define sets of aliases for your diagrams, draw custom graphics and assign them to stereotypes. This edition includes tools for cooperation and project comparison. It allows you to specify project glossary.

Complete List of Features and Improvements

@ Professional Edition:
+ Added BPMN diagrams
+ Conversation diagram
+ Collaboration diagram
+ Choreography diagram
+ Added JSD diagrams
+ Entity structure diagram
+ Network diagram
+ Added Entity Life History diagram
+ Added Hierarchical Task Analysis diagram
+ Added Gane & Sarson notation for DFD
+ Added new UML elements:
+ Activity Loop Node
+ Activity Conditional Node
+ Connector
+ Gate
+ Boundary, Control and Entity lifelines
+ ForkJoin element was split to Fork and Join
+ Merge
+ Added other new elements:
+ Art text
+ Source Code parsing into model/diagrams
+ C# parser
+ VB.NET parser
+ Java parser
+ Support for multiple templates per programming language
+ Advanced selectors for parts of source code template
+ Smart keys
+ Added shortcut keys for tools
+ Source Code Parser in side bar - identifies inserted code and generates diagram elements
+ Project documents
+ Export to HTML
+ Export to ODT
+ Export to PDF
+ Export to RTF
+ Export to TXT
+ Improved database importing
+ Import tables from MySQL
+ Import tables from any data source using OLE DB
+ Support for reverse engineering of .NET 4 assemblies
+ Improved reverse engineering (recognizes abstract, virtal and static methods)
+ Several levels of element repositories which define the visibility of element in the project (project repository - present in previous versions, model repository, diagram repository)
+ Improved Element Browser
+ Shows related elements
+ Shows diagram on which the selected element is present
+ Shows associated diagrams
+ Name filter
+ Added operation body with source code (multiple languages supported)
+ Name of activity parameter is turned into label
+ Diagram size settings
+ Expand in all directions
+ Expand right down
+ Fixed sizes (A4, A3, letter, legal, ...)
+ Multiple pages of chosen size
+ Custom size
+ Show/hide paper borders
+ Rotation of elements
+ Improved automatic refreshing of project tree
+ Elements can be precisely moved in vertical and horizontal direction when CTRL is pressed during moving
+ Diagram will be not open when you drag an element in the project tree
+ User Profiles - First Name, Last Name, Initials, E-mail
+ Displaying creator of element
+ Items in project tree can be reordered using mouse
+ Project tree can be ordered in various ways:
+ Custom order
+ Order by name
+ Order by creation date
+ Order by type
+ Splittable diagram editor
+ Information about selection in the status bar
+ Coordinates can be displayed in one of 4 units (pixels, millimeters, centimeters, inches)
+ Rulers in diagram editor
+ New context bar buttons:
+ Change border color
+ Change background color
+ Change second background color
+ Change border width
+ Added context menu for toolbox (allows collapse/expand the group, change the style of icons)
+ Icons in toolbox can be displayed without names
+ Dialog with Paste options
+ Items can be pasted as instances of existing model item, which will be connected with
+ Renaming of diagrams and models using double-click on tab
+ Added Associated Diagrams tab in Item Properties dialog
+ Items can be deleted using DELETE key in Project tree
+ Menu shortcut keys editor
+ Project can be saved into multiple files
+ Added keys for adjusting view
+ Small move - Left/Right/Up/Down
+ Large move - SHIFT + Left/Right/Up/Down
+ Page move - Page Up, Page Down
+ Cancel selection with ESCAPE key
+ Custom filters
+ Management of custom filters (global/project filters)
+ Filter by author of element
+ Added Diagram Properties item into the context menu for diagram
+ Added Style tab in Diagram Properties dialog (diagram background can be set)
+ Multiselection in project tree can be clear using ESCAPE key
+ Elements can be drawn in any direction not only from left top to right bottom
+ Multiplicity of association role can be chosen from drop down list
+ Tab pages in sidebar can be closed (using middle mouse button or from menu View/Sidebars/)
+ Border width of comment connector can be changed
+ Improved style of menus
+ New souce code template commands:
+ Bounds commands (DElement.X, DElement.Y, DElement.Width, DElement.Height)
+ Associated diagrams are displayed without their content in the project tree (makes work with bigger project much more faster)
+ Project filename is displayed in title bar of main window
+ Names of state regions are displayed
+ Lifeline stops automatically after destroy
+ Class attribute supports multiplicity
+ Class attribute supports ordering
+ Elements can be moved to another layer using context menu
+ New style option: Padding
+ Lifelines in Communication Diagram supports active and multi-object parameter
+ Some message boxes with question can be set to not show again
+ Rendering quality setting is persistent
+ Added shortcut key (/) for 100% zoom
+ New grid in ERD entity editor (Properties Dialog)
+ Background colors, border colors and line width can be set from context bar for multiple elements at once
+ Start and end role group boxes in properties dialog for association contain the name of element, to which they refer
+ Updated icons and added more icons, different icons for Add Attribute, Add Operation, Add SubClass and Add SuperClass
+ Added Pan tool
+ Author of project, model and diagram is automatically filled by application settings
+ Added new properties to model: Author, Version, Creation Date
+ Changed localization file format from custom format to standard .resx format
* Fixed tab order in diagram properties window
* Project tree is automatically updated after dropping item from toolbox
* Fixed incorrect change of position of activity parameter when is on bottom of activity and the activity is resized

@ Ultimate Edition:
+ Templates for project documents
+ Aliases - sets of alternative names
+ Graphics library
+ Graphics editor
+ Added Shape tab into side bar
+ Custom shapes can be added for stereotypes
+ Cooperation panel
+ Cooperation tab in Properties dialog for each element
+ Creator of element
+ Participants
+ User comments
+ Project comparison
+ Exact comparison
+ Comparison by name
+ Comparison by custom ID
+ Project glossary
+ Template editor for generated source code
+ Visual template editor
+ Text template editor
+ Preview of generated code

Downloads

Download Software Ideas Modeler 5.00 (ZIP package)
Download Software Ideas Modeler 5.00 (Setup)