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Customize the Desktop
As you work on your project, creating and reviewing model structures, you can make use of a wide range of system windows that help you locate and focus on particular types of object or object property. To make your modeling tasks even easier, you can fix these windows in a convenient place on your screen, move them around, set them as callable tabs or auto hide them.
Using Workspace Layouts, accessible from the Ribbon bar or from the Portals, you can also quickly load different sets of windows that target particular tasks. You can also save your favorite layouts and recall them when required.
You can access these windows through ribbon options or through keyboard key combinations. However, the fastest way to select and open any window in Enterprise Architect is to use the Quick Access panels, as described in the Window Quick Access Help topic.
One of the strengths of Enterprise Architect is that you can work in a central view and instantly view and edit aspects of your model in one or more of the windows surrounding the central view. Having completed your review in a window, however, you can quickly switch focus back to the object you were working on in the central (or 'active') view by pressing (effectively ).
Which are the Standard windows?
Window |
Description |
See also |
|---|---|---|
|
Browser |
The Browser window is the primary mechanism for navigating through and exploring your model and is the starting point for many of the most important features in Enterprise Architect. It lists the model Packages, diagrams, elements and element features in a hierarchical structure, reflecting the arrangement of Packages and elements within your model. |
The Browser Window |
|
Element Browser |
The Element Browser is the 'Details' tab of the Inspector window. This is one of the most useful and important information displays in Enterprise Architect. You can use the 'Details' tab to summarize, review and manage a wide range of properties and features of the selected element, such as relationships, operations, attributes, requirements and maintenance items. |
Using the Element Tab of the Browser |
|
Properties |
The Properties window provides an immediate method of viewing and editing the properties of a selected object - element, diagram, connector, attribute, operation, Maintenance Item, Project Item, test or associated file. |
Properties Window |
|
Notes |
Notes are the main documentation feature you use to describe an element, diagram, feature or connector; in the documentation that Enterprise Architect generates, notes feature prominently. You can record and view notes on a modeling object using the Notes window. |
Notes |
|
Responsibilities |
The Responsibility window is a tabbed window through which you can quickly add, view, edit and delete rules applied to the selected element. The entities that impose such rules are requirements, scenarios, and constraints applied to the element, and external files containing information relevant to the element. |
Responsibilities |
|
Traceability |
Using the Traceability window you can quickly see what elements are immediately linked to the selected element and in what relationships, and what elements are indirectly linked via a chain of relationships. You can also select a diagram and explore the relationships of all elements in that diagram. |
The Traceability Window |
|
Relationships |
The Relationships window lists all the relationships of the currently-selected element, and shows the properties of each relationship. |
The Relationships Window |
|
Library Window |
The Library window provides a structured internal forum that your team can use to discuss aspects of the model content and development. |
Team Library |
|
Diagram Toolbox |
The Diagram Toolbox is a panel of icons that you drag onto a diagram to create elements and connectors. Related elements and connectors are organized into Toolbox pages, each page containing the elements or connectors used for a particular type of diagram. |
Diagram Toolbox |
|
Diagram Filters |
You use the Filters & Layers window to modify the display of diagram components so that relevant items are immediately identified for the reader's attention, without damaging the structure and integrity of the model. |
Diagram Filters |
|
Layout Diagrams |
The Layout Diagrams window provides a set of diagram layout formats that you can apply to a diagram you have created, to automatically reorganize the layout to make it more readable. |
Layout Diagrams |
|
Pan and Zoom |
The Pan and Zoom window enlarges the current diagram by a percentage you define, and displays a thumbnail view of it with a shaded rectangle. As you move the shaded rectangle with the mouse, the diagram shows the magnified items of the structure underneath the rectangle. |
The Pan & Zoom Window |
|
Resources |
The 'Resources' tab of the Browser window provides useful shortcuts and re-use functions for creating and applying stock components in the current model. The tab contains a tree structure of document templates, Relationship Matrix profiles, stylesheets, patterns and commonly-used model elements. The tab can also provide access to UML Profiles and MDG Technologies, although this is not the recommended route to these facilities. |
Resources Window |
|
Source Code Viewer |
The Source Code Viewer window displays the generated source code for a selected Class element, and provides a number of facilities for editing that source code. |
Editing Source Code |
|
Scripting |
The Scripting window hosts a flexible and easy to use scripting capability to create scripts in JavaScript, Microsoft JScript or VBScript. Using a built in 'Repository' object, you can programmatically inspect and/or modify elements within the currently open model. The window provides tools to edit, run, debug and manage your scripts. |
Scripting |
|
Debug |
The Debug window provides a set of facilities for starting, managing and halting a debug session on the code generated from elements of your model. |
Run the Debugger |
|
Maintenance |
The Maintenance window, or workspace, lists the maintenance records (features, changes, documents, issues, defects and tasks) for a selected element, ready for modification or addition. The window provides several facilities for managing the maintenance records. |
Working on Maintenance Items |
|
Project |
The Project Tools window provides facilities to record and manage the events, decisions, effort, risk and metrics associated with the work in developing the area of the model represented by the selected element. |
Project Window |
|
Testing |
The Test Cases window, or workspace, lists the test records for a selected element, ready for modification or addition. The window provides several facilities for managing the test records. |
|
|
Learning Center |
The Learning Center provides quick access to a range of context-specific task guides in a number of work areas of the system, such as Getting Started, Modeling or Testing. |
Learning Portal |
Notes
- On the Testing, Maintenance and Project Tools windows, any descriptive text, history, input or results for a selected item are also displayed in the Notes window