Windows Machines
Rational Rose Student Edition
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This is already installed on the CAEN machines (thanks to Brook Enger for finding this out)! You can run it by selecting
"Run" from the Start menu, and then typing S:\Course\IOE573\rose\rosecppd.exe. If you are sitting on a CAEN PC
right now AND you're running Internet Explorer, then you can start it right now by clicking
HERE and then choosing "Run It", and "Yes" to the install message.
Once you get it started, there are a few (inconsequential) error messages on start-up. Just hit "OK", "No", and then "OK" again.
For those of you that want to download and install it at home, here is the URL: http://www.rational.com/products/rose/tryit/student.jtmpl. Be warned, though, this is a HUGE program to download and install.
FAQ
Q: How do I fill in my aggregations to make compositions?
A: After you have dragged and dropped an aggregation
onto your class diagram, you can double-click on it to bring up a
list of options. The option to make it a composition is under the
Role A Detail. Choose "Containment of" to be By Value.
Q: How do I draw a state daigram, the option looks greyed-out?
A: For some reason, Rational Rose does not allow
you to just draw a state diagram, without attaching it to a
class. The first thing you have to do is create a dummy class
(you don't even have to name it) in the default class diagram
window that pops up, and make sure that this class is selected.
Then choose View->State Diagram, or press Ctrl-T.
Now you have a state diagram to work with.
Remember that the documentation says that the student evaluation
version is limited to 10 states. I don't know exactly how that
works, but I recommend saving every time that you add a state.
You might add just one more state and find that you can't save
your work anymore. If you're tricky, you can probably get around
this problem by having composite states that are expanded on a
seperate state diagram.
Q: How do I draw a concurrent state?
A: The community acknowledges that Rose
does not support drawing concurrent states. The general consensus
on getting around this problem is to draw internal states and
document them as concurrent (right on the diagram), like this.
Q: How do I draw a concurrent state?
A: The community acknowledges that Rose
does not support drawing concurrent states. The general consensus
on getting around this problem is to draw internal states and
document them as concurrent (right on the diagram), like this.
Q: How do I create an interaction diagram?
A: From the pull-down menus, choose
Browse->Interaction Diagram, Then choose either Use Case
View or Logical View (it doesn't appear to matter for
our purposes), and select <New>. At this point you
can choose to create either a Sequence or Collaboration diagram,
and you are on your way.
Q: The toolbox doesn't have the UML element that I
want to draw, what do I do?
A: I'm afraid this situation is going to come up
quite a bit. The first thing to do is to find out whether Rose
supports the UML element for your current diagram type. From the
pull-down menus, choose Tools->Options, then click on the
Toolbars tab. You will see a set of options called
Customize Button Panels which will allow you to change the
UML elements that appear for each diagram type.
If you still can't find the element that you need, then draw something as close as possible to the element you intended, and then either stereotype it or attach a comment to it so that we know what you mean.
Visio 60-Day "Test Trial" Edition
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We handed these CD's out in class. I'm afraid it's not likely that we'll get this program installed on the
CAEN machines, but it is a good tool for those of you that have your own PC to install it on.
FAQ
Q: When I try to save my diagram on exit, nothing works. Can I still save my work, or did I lose everything?
A: This must be a bug with the program,
and an annoying one at that. The best solution that I have found
is to go into the menu and hit SaveAs, then choose the same file
name. It will ask you to overwrite (say "yes"), and then you'll
see the little save dialog flash in front of you. If you didn't
see the save window, it isn't saved. I recommend saving often.
Q: How do I get rid of these annoying syntax
errors??
A: If you got a syntax error (objects suddenly turned red)
on your diagram, then it probably happened for a reason. If you
are only using the UML objects in the Visio toolbars, then you
probably shouldn't get any errors. You can get information about
the errors from the window in the bottom left corner of your screen.
There are a few times when the syntax errors can't be helped. For example, if you create a composite state by drawing a Visio rectangle around states in your state diagram, and then try to attach a transition to that rectangle. In this case, then transitions will light up as having an error, but that is just because it is not attached to a UML element that it understands. In this case, you can right click on the transition (or whatever object is giving you the problem) and select the object properties menu. You'll see that the line type is set with an increased width and a red color. If you set it back to the black line and a normal width... then no-one will ever know.
UNIX Machines
It looks like our best bet of getting something to run on the UNIX machines is to run a UML tool written in Java. I've only chosen the tools that are a reasonable size to download (and install into your AFS account).Coming Soon...