Question

UML 2 in Visio

Asked by: rt2001

Hello,

I am using Visio to draw some UML Sequence Diagrams. A document I am referring to talks about 'Frames' that are UML 2. I can't seem to find Frames anywhere in the Visio toolbox...how can I access UML 2 artifacts in Visio?

Also are Sequence Diagrams a good way to represent interactions between services running as background processes, locally?
And are the following representations correct....
- messages sent represented by <i>sloping</i> solid arrows
- responses rep by sloping broken arrows
- Object lines representing services/exes
....?

Thanks all for the answers!

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Asked On
2009-10-18 at 05:12:39ID24821548
Tags

visio

,

uml

,

sequence

Topics

OMG UML Programming Language

,

Microsoft Visio

,

Design & Methodology

Participating Experts
2
Points
125
Comments
5

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Answers

 

by: DarrenDPosted on 2009-10-18 at 09:08:51ID: 25600295

Hi,

Frames are simply used for two reasons:

1. To encapsulate a piece of work and
2. Combined Fragment. This is basically used in 'For' loops

Frame
http://www.agilemodeling.com/style/frame.htm

I'm not sure what support Microsoft has for UML as they are pushing towards using DSL but you can buy a set of UML 2.2 stencils for Visio.
http://softwarestencils.com/uml/index.html

Personally I'd use a different tool such as Sparx Enterprise Architect.

Hope this helps,

Darren

 

by: marklorenzPosted on 2009-10-18 at 09:45:35ID: 25600440

GM.  I'd use ArgoUML - it's arguably the best free UML tool out there.  http://argouml.tigris.org/

For paid tools, MagicDraw is the best in my experience.  http://magicdraw.com

Best of luck

 

by: rt2001Posted on 2009-10-19 at 02:36:18ID: 25603696

Thank you for the responses. :-)

Can anyone answer the question about representation as well.

Thanks again!

 

by: DarrenDPosted on 2009-10-19 at 02:57:55ID: 25603801

Hi,

Yes you can use Sequence diagrams to show the interactions between almost any participants such as Other Machines or Other Programs.

This would represent a call to a method on another machine or program, no matter where it is running.


messages sent represented by <i>sloping</i> solid arrows
Solid Arrow indicates a synchronous message
Open arrow indicates an asynchronous message

responses rep by sloping broken arrows
Yes this is correct

Object lines representing services/exes
Yes this is fine to show participants.

Hope this helps,

Darren

 

by: rt2001Posted on 2009-10-19 at 05:40:23ID: 31642607

Thanks much, Darren, Mark

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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