Re: UML class diagram formatting

[Hans Breuer <hans breuer org>]

At 22.09.2009 13:45, Jordans, R. wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I've been working with Dia on UML class diagrams for a while and I would like
> to suggest a small change.
>
> Currently, all UML class diagrams are scaled to match their contents.
> I think that using a minimum width for these elements would give a much cleaner
> output as most of the class boxes would have a similar width.
Another benefit would be that snap-to-grid would be working better ...

> This can be achieved (I think) by a simple change the code of
> umlclass_calculate_data() [1] by using this minimum width to initialize the
> local maxwidth variable.
Although this might have worked I've taken a different approach because 
entering a preferred width does not look that user friendly. See:
http://git.gnome.org/cgit/dia/commit/?id=4e73db4ad9ab4b9f84a86e8091e40be93688b262

> Finally, I found another topic about tweaking UML diagrams [2] when looking
> for earlier posts to this mailing list on this topic. One of the final
> suggestions made in response to that is to add some generic settings for
> UML diagrams (in that case: line width). Has there been any effort in that
> direction so far?
Yeah. It got implemented almost a year ago and is thus available with the 
most recent release: dia-0-97 from about five month ago.

From ChangeLog:

2008-10-12  Hans Breuer  <hans breuer org>

        * objects/UML/actor.c objects/UML/class.[ch]
          objects/UML/class_dialog.c objects/UML/large_package.c
          objects/UML/note.c objects/UML/object.c
          objects/UML/small_package.c objects/UML/usecase.c : configurable
        line-width for UML elements, patch from Pablo Gra\~na

> I think such a settings 'menu' would be a nice place to put this minimum width as well.
Sorry I don't quite understand. Since dia-0-97 there is a dedicated "Style" 
property page in the UML - Class properties dialog.

Regards,
        Hans

-------- Hans "at" Breuer "dot" Org -----------
Tell me what you need, and I'll tell you how to
get along without it.                -- Dilbert