Manipulating Entities

Adding Entities

You can add Classes and relationships in the Class Diagram Editor using one of the following methods:

Removing Entities

You can remove the classes and relationships by selecting the required entity (or entities) and pressing DELETE, or by right-clicking them and selecting Remove. On clicking Remove, you are prompted to confirm the deletion of the required entity (or entities). They are removed from the class diagram only but retained in the model.

Selecting Multiple Entities

There are two ways to select multiple entities in Class Diagram Editor:

To select multiple entities that are adjacent, drag a boundary around the entities that you want to select.

To select multiple entities that are not adjacent, select a single entity, press SHIFT or CTRL key, then click the other entities that you want to select.

Moving Entities

To move the entities in the Class Diagram Editor, drag them to position them as required.

Relationships between classes are automatically redrawn as their constituent classes are moved. To make any changes in an existing relationship, select the relationship in the Class Diagram Editor, and then drag the handles which are displayed as green boxes at each end of the relationship. When dragged, these handles will snap to the class closest to the current cursor position.

Refer to Class Diagram Editor Settings for more information on how to use the grid to help position entities.

Modifying Appearance

You can modify the appearance of class diagram members by selecting the required entities, right-clicking, and expanding Format, and then selecting one of the following options:

Refer to Class Diagram Editor Settings for more information on how to set default colors.

Modifying Display

You can modify the display of class diagram members by selecting the required entity in the Class Diagram Editor, right-clicking and selecting Shape Display Options. This displays the UML Shape Display Options dialog box, which specifies the display of the selected class diagram member in the following categories: :

To apply these display settings to subsequently added entities, select the Apply to subsequently dropped element of the same type checkbox in the UML Shape Display Options dialog box.