Downgrade your evaluation version of Visual Paradigm to Community Edition
Visual Paradigm Community Edition is a FREE CASE tool for you to create professional-look UML diagrams. Visual Paradigm Community Edition not just supports UML but also SysML as well as ERD. You can easily switch from free Community Edition to higher edition for 30 days free evaluation and to try out the advanced features. You can always switch the evaluation software back to Community Edition in few clicks. In this article we will show you how to switch the evaluation software back to Community Edition. Read more
How do I Know Which Shape in a Diagram Has Description Entered
For every model element, there is a description property that allows you to describe detailed information about individual element, so that readers can understand the intended use, intended behavior and other important information. For example, specific implementation guideline can be written in a UML class or class diagram, and precautions can be written in a BPMN task in a business process diagram.
Sometimes, we may not have the information we need to enter in the description at the time the model element is being created. We may leave it first and enter it later on. But then the problem comes: After several days or weeks, how do I remember which shapes in a diagram has description missing? To check shape-by-shape is time-consuming…
In this article, we will show you how to indicate in diagram shapes that has description entered. This allows you to concentrate on shapes that have no description entered. Besides, it allows readers to check and read the description of shapes only when description has been entered which makes the diagram more legible.
How to Paste Text to Description Editor without Rich Text Format
When you copy and paste formatted text into a description editor in Visual Paradigm, it automatically brings along the formatting properties. This sounds reasonable and is quite a nice behavior if you really want to keep the style of text contents. However, there are several reasons why you might not want to keep the formatting. First, when you copy from web page, it may bring along crappy HTML contents, say the hidden table borders and layers. In fact, when CSS is widely used in most of the modern websites, what you copy from a webpage is not necessarily what you can get when pasting without the existence of the CSS. Second, you may not want to mix up the style of text in your description with the source. Third, although the crappy formatting properties may look invisible in the description editor, they may affect the content in generated documentations. After all, to clear those formatting tags is time consuming and error prone.
Account for the reasons above, it would be nice to have certain ways to paste text without including formatting properties, which means, to paste as plain text. In Visual Paradigm, the “Paste without formatting” function is provided to serve this purpose.
How to Find and Remove Unused Models in Your Project
As your project grows, it is inevitable to have more and more orphans model elements left in your project. Such model elements are not visualized in any diagrams and are not useful anymore. This article will show you how to locate those elements so that you can remove them from your project. Read more
How to Find Text in Description
The find feature allows you to search for specific words or sentences within text in the description editor. Finding starts from the beginning of the description, regardless of the position of text cursor. The first occurrence of text that matches with the entered search text will be highlighted. You can move to the next occurrence by clicking on the Next button. You can perform finding in all the RTF description editors, such as the description editor in specification window.
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Importing models through Excel file
It’s always a nightmare when you need to transform your models from one format into another one, especially when you need to migrate to a new paradigm, i.e. convert your textual and tabular form data into a graphical presentation. Instead of re-creating all your model elements, you can transform your data into an Excel file, and import it to Visual Paradigm and visualize it as a diagram. To do this:
How to Add Diagram Link into Description
When you are documenting your model, you may come across the situation where you want to make a reference to certain diagram in the project to help you explain an idea or to give reader supplementary information they may find useful. For example, you may want to add into the description of a class, a note to tell the developers that if they want to know more about the state change of the class, refer to certain state machine diagram. While the reference feature allows you to establish formal and contractual reference between model elements and diagrams, the reference function you can find within the description editor enables you to add diagram link into any part within a description, casually and informally. Such a diagram shortcut enables reader to jump from description to a diagram, which makes navigation much easier.
How to Define Sequence for your ID Generator in ERD
In relational database, records are identified by a unique value. We call this value the primary key. Some databases allow to control how this unique value is being generated by defining the sequence. In this article, we will show you how to model the sequence with Visual Paradigm and use as the ID Generator for your database tables.
How to Generate Unique ID for Model Elements
ID is a very useful property for a model elements. Having an unique ID for your model elements not just can ease the communication between your team but also help to structure your model in a more systematic way. Visual Paradigm can help you to generate unique ID for your model elements. Besides, you can apply customized patterns to the ID to accommodate your needs in different situations. In this article, we will show you how to configure the ID generator to generate customized ID for your model elements with Visual Paradigm. Read more
How to Group Entities in ERD Database Designer?
Last week, we showed you how to assign entities in an ERD to a schema. One of our users ask if there is any way to group entities in a logical manner, rather than setting the schema property reserved for physical database.
The answer is yes. You can make use of model or UML package to store and categories the entities in logical groups. The grouping can be seen in both the Model Structure and diagram. In this article, we will show you how to group entities in ERD database designer. In order to perform the steps described in this article, make sure you have Visual Paradigm installed.
