C4 Diagrams Items Showing As Rectangles

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Hi,

I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong or not. The goal is to use the C4 System Context Diagram with the icons shown in the October 6, 2021 news post. https://www.softwareideas.net/a/1630/Software-Ideas-Modeler-13-with-13-New-Diagram-Types

I see rectangles for Software System, Container, Component, and Person. The Relationship is a single direction arrow.

What am I missing?

25 January 2022 4:39:32 Ben Holtzman

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Dusan Rodina - softwareideas.net 25 January 2022 11:11:36

Hi,

There was not any picture with a C4 diagram in the mentioned article. The pictures show Organization Chart, E-R Chen Diagram, User Interface Diagram, and UML Class Diagram.

However, you can change the shape of the C4 elements when you drag a shape item from the Graphics sidebar (https://www.softwareideas.net/a/186/Graphics-Sidebar) and drop it over the C4 element.

Ben Holtzman 25 January 2022 16:09:25

RE:

Hmm. I didn't expect that answer. Please look at the annotated image in the provided URL. I see this image when I open the news article in initial the link. Do you see the people icons and the shaded boxes? These are not visible in the palette of icons for the graph type in question. How do I get the icons shown in the image? Thanks!

[URL]https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ljLKAy41qMrFNaO3O_Jbijxx1byo7miY/view?usp=sharing[/URL]

Dusan Rodina - softwareideas.net 25 January 2022 16:49:39

RE: RE:

I am sorry for the misunderstanding. Now I know what you meant. This visual representation of the person element was used only for the diagram icons. As C4 notation doesn't prescribe any particular notation for the elements, we implemented all the elements as simple rectangles that may be overridden with other shapes from the provided library. The shapes used in the examples on c4model.com may be missing, but we can be added to the Graphics library in one of the next releases.

Ben Holtzman 25 January 2022 18:02:08

RE: RE: RE:

Got it. Thank you for the pointers. I'll look into overriding the elements with other shapes. I'd love to have the convenience of just using the supplied shapes in a future update. That would be useful for me.

Thanks!

Now I just need to figure out how to override the shapes. There's a lot of flexibility in the modeler. It looks like a fun program to work on. But certainly, there's a lot of complexity involved!