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Advanced Features

• Hiding and Showing Items (Inferencing/Model Summary)
• Bounding Box relationships
• Drop Related/Auto linking
• Suppressing relationship text
• Auto rotation of labels
• Automatic layout
• Difference Models

Hiding and Showing Items (Inferencing/Model Summary)

It is sometimes useful to be able to hide detail in a model. An example would be where we have Application systems interfaced to other Application systems via a variety of intermediate items, including Files, Databases and Interfaces. We might want to see a picture of just which Applications talk to which others, without the detail of how. To achieve this, we define a model type with Application and the intervening types. When we retrieve a model, we will get the full set of items displayed, but we can hide those we do not wish to see by clicking the "hide" decoration on the icon for the relevant type on the icon strip. In this way we can see the "inferred" relationship between applications without worrying about the intervening detail. A corresponding decoration on the icon allows showing items again.

Bounding Box relationships

Sometimes we want to create relationships between items without having to explicitly draw relationships. An example would be to show the Activities within a Process or to show the Software Components within a Platform. In these cases, we can use a GM feature that supports bounding boxes. In the model type definition, the representation for the "container" type is chosen as a bounding box. We can then stretch this on the model type space and drag the items which we want related to it inside the box. GM will prompt for a relationship type to be inferred from this relationship. When we do instance models, dragging an item inside a bounding box will then relate the item automatically as defined in the model type. A black decoration will appear on the symbol for the item to indicate that this relationship has been inferred. Dragging items out of the bounding box will "break" the relationship again.

Drop Related/Auto linking

A very useful feature of GM to support rapid visual modeling using information from the repository is the drop related option. This is set on with the tool on the toolbar. If checked, when an item is dropped into a model and has associated items in the repository linked via relationships which are included in the model type, those items will also be dropped into the model and automatically linked via the appropriate relationships to the initial item. A related feature is auto linking. When an item is dropped into the model space, GM determines if it has links to any of the items already in the model which are consistent with the model definition. If it has, these links are inserted automatically.

Suppressing relationship text

The text describing relationships can be turned on and off using the tool on the toolbar. This can visually simplify models where this information is not useful. Saving a model with the text hidden will cause it to be retrieved in that state the next time it is loaded. Text can be turned on again at any time.

Auto rotation of labels

Selecting this option on the toolbar allows GM to rotate the label text to match the orientation of the connector lines.

Automatic layout

This option causes GM to move items in the model to achieve a reasonable layout. It will "space out" items, preserving relationships and achieving a readable situation while keeping the model reasonably compact.

Difference Models

GM supports an advanced feature where two visual models of the same type can be automatically examined for differences, which are then highlighted visually. To achieve this:

• Select the model type and load the first model
•  Once it is displayed, drop down the list of models and select and drag the name of the second model into the modeling space. GM will automatically show the differences between the two models.
• Items which are in the first model but not in the second will be shown with an X
• Items which are in the second model, but not in the first will be shown with a gold star
• Items where an older version of an item is in the first model, and a newer version is in the second model will be shown with a delta (triangle symbol). The items must be linked with an appropriate relationship later version/earlier version in the repository This feature is very useful for showing scope changes, scenarios or architecture delta models.