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Model Elements
Elements are the building blocks of models and, together with Connectors, they help a modeler to describe an enterprise, business engineering, real-time or software system. They can be found in the Browser window and will typically appear on one or more diagrams, where a modeler will describe what role they play in the model. They also appear in a wide range of dialog windows that show other aspects of the elements, such as testing and resource allocation.
The element types are defined by the modeling languages or profiles they belong to; for example, Classes and Use Cases are part of the grammar of UML, Activities and Gateways are part of the grammar of BPMN, and Blocks and Requirements are part of the grammar of SysML. Each element type has a notation that helps modelers recognize the element and understand its purpose.
In a diagram, when you create or select an element, a small toolbar of options also displays off the top right corner of the element. The first of these is the Quick Linker arrow for creating connectors and target elements, and the others are Element Icons for performing specific operations on the element's appearance in the diagram.
Elements typically have a name, description and a series of properties and features that describe them, including project properties such as status, phase and author.