Working With Model Items and Diagrams > Working with diagrams > Diagram types > General flow diagram
  
General flow diagram
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• 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 Modeler, your Activity Diagrams are now called General Flow Diagrams in Modeler.
• Studio 7.1 introduced 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.
General Flow Diagrams can be used to model actions and the effect of those actions on items in the model. For example, a General Flow Diagram may describe a Use Case, Event or Operation.
You can create a General Flow Diagram through the context menu of a Model or Package: right-click the item, point to New, and then click General Flow Diagram.
The General Flow Diagram Nodes and Flows can be linked to items in the model.
Note that when you link an Activity or Operation to an Action or Frame Box on a General Flow Diagram, you can view the Activity's or Operation's Parameters as pins. In addition, you can show an Operation's Exceptions and Return Type as pins. To populate pins, right-click the linked Action or Frame Box, point to Populate, and then click Pins or Parameter Pins.
The following sections provide information about how a General Flow Diagram is used in the model. For more information about an item, property or model part, click it.
Shows these dictionary items
Like most diagrams, a General Flow Diagram can show variability items and relationships. See Overview of variability items and relationships on diagrams.
For most diagram symbols, you can change the presentation of the symbol through the Style view options (See Style view options - all diagrams), and change the showing of Stereotypes and Tag Definitions through the Stereotypes view options (See Stereotypes view options for a symbol - all diagrams). When a symbol has additional view options for changing its presentation, this icon is shown - to see how the view options can change the presentation, click the icon.
Swimlane
• General Flow Diagram Node
• General Flow Diagram Flow
Comment
Constraint
Dependency
Parameter
These items (which are not documented in the reference topics) can also appear on a General Flow Diagram:
• Frame Box - provides a way of adding a box or background image to the diagram.
• Note - provides a way of adding text to the diagram.
• Note Link - links a Constraint, Comment or Note to an item on the diagram.
Properties
A General Flow Diagram has these properties:
• Description
• Full Name
• Last Changed By
• Last Changed On
• Name
• Page Reference
• Type
• Visibility
Owned by
Activity
Actor
Class
Data Type
Event
Interface
Model
Operation
Package
Subsystem
Use Case
Used in these parts of the model
None. General Flow Diagrams are shown in the Miscellaneous folder of the Relationships pane.
Can be linked to these dictionary items
Stereotype
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Like most other diagrams in a Model, a General Flow Diagram can be linked to an Activity Partition, Comment, Frame Box, General Node, General Flow, General Flow Diagram Node, Constraint (applied), General Flow Diagram Flow or Swimlane.