• In Studio 7.0 and earlier versions, General Flow Diagrams were named Activity Diagrams: If you created Activity Diagrams in Studio version 7.0 or earlier and have upgraded, your Activity Diagrams are now called General Flow Diagrams in Modeler.
• Studio 7.1 included new Activity Diagrams, which you should use in preference to General Flow Diagrams. General Flow Diagrams are being deprecated and are included in Modeler only for backward compatibility.
• Should you need to create General Flow Diagrams, they can now be created only from the Model or a Package. After creating a General Flow Diagram you can drag it to an Activity, Actor, Class, Data Type, Event, Interface, Operation, Subsystem or Use Case.
You can use the General Flow Diagram toolbar to create a symbol that is not linked to a dictionary item, or you can drag an item to the General Flow Diagram to create a symbol that is linked to the item you dragged.
To create an unlinked symbol:
1. Open the General Flow Diagram to which you want to add a symbol.
2. On the General Flow Diagram toolbar, click the required button.
3. Click where you want to add the symbol.
If you click to the right of the right-most Swimlane, the Swimlane boundary will extend beyond the position you clicked.
4. If the Name of the symbol is displayed, type the name of the symbol.
If an Activity Node crosses the border of a Swimlane, the Activity Node is owned by the Swimlane in which the top left corner of an Activity Node resides.
To create a linked symbol:
• Drag the item to the General Flow Diagram.
Modeler typically creates an Object that is linked to the item you dragged. The exceptions are as follows:
• If you drag an Event onto a General Flow Diagram, Modeler creates a Send Signal that is linked to the Event you dragged.
• If you drag an Activity on to a General Flow Diagram, Modeler creates an Action that is linked to the Activity you dragged. Modeler creates pins for the Activity's Parameters. You can use the Populate > Pins command on the context menu to add new Parameters that are added to a linked Activity.
• If you drag an Operation on to a General Flow Diagram, Modeler creates an Action that is linked to the Operation you dragged. Modeler creates pins for the Operation (if it has a return type), its Parameters and its Exceptions. You can use the Populate > Pins command on the context menu to add new features that are added to a linked Operation.
• If you link a Class to an Action, right-click the Action, and then click Populate > Pins; Modeler creates a pin for each of the Class' Ports.