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.

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How to Define Sequence for your ID Generator in ERD

coverIn 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.

 

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How to Group Entities in ERD Database Designer?

deletet-keyLast 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.

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How to Print Matrix Diagram

The Matrix Diagram in Visual Paradigm provides a macro view to show the relationships between model elements. This is not limited to model elements having the physical relationship connectors, but also for some more abstract relationships, such as containment, model transitions and even references. Read more

Where are the element templates in VP 12.1?

“Where are the element templates gone?”, is a question being asked frequently by users who have recently upgraded to Visual Paradigm 12.1, and discovered that the XML template files to use in developing document are no longer exist. So where are the element templates gone?

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How to switch the default paste behavior to Paste as Model?

Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V are possibly the hotkeys you use most in Visual Paradigm. You press Ctrl-C to copy shapes, and press Ctrl-V to paste the copied shapes to the active diagram. There are two ways of pasting – Paste as View and Paste as Model. While the default paste behavior triggered by Ctrl-V is to Paste as View, you can optionally change to Paste as Model. We will show you how it works in this article.

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How to enter shape name in multiple lines?

tomcat-thumbSometimes, you may want to give a shape a long name. If the name is so long that it reaches the shape border, it will automatically wrapped. If you dislike the auto wrapping behavior, you can add line breaks to appropriate position yourself. In this article you will learn how to add a line break when editing a shape’s name inline.

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Progressively Develop Conceptual, Logical and Physical ERDs

tomcat-thumbEntity-Relationship Diagrams (ERDs) come in 3 types in general. They describe data models on 3 levels of abstraction – conceptual, logical and physical, ranging from high-level ideas to details required for implementation. With Visual Paradigm, you can systematically and easily progress through these stages of development in data modeling.

Far from a copy & paste function only, you can actually develop a logical or physical design from a conceptual diagram, with the design tracing ability.

For example, if a new staff comes on board to work on a project’s physical design ERD, he/she can click on a database table to trace where this idea originally comes from in the conceptual diagram (to which it is inherently linked by Visual Paradigm). This function will not only bring relief to the staff but also help safeguard the project’s quality along the way.

In this article, we will show you an example on how to create a conceptual ERD and transit it to a physical ERD, from which you can generate a DLL file for database implementation. Read more

How to Display a Parameter in Class without Showing its Name?

How to Display a Parameter in Class without Showing its Name?Programming languages like C or C++ accepts nameless arguments in function declaration. You may write something like void myFunction(double){…} to declare a function that accepts a double as argument. In modeling level, you can represent this kind of function by not showing the parameter name in an operation. This article shows you how to do this.

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How to Configure the Visual Properties of an Animation?

How to Configure the Visual Properties of an Animation?To animate a workflow in business process diagram enables you or your stakeholders to figure out a path easier. This is particularly useful when there are many possible paths in a business process.

During an animation, flow objects being reached by a token that controls the animation flow would be painted in purple. If you find the color not clear enough, or if you simply dislike purple :-), read this article to see how to change to another color.

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