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umlenterprise-architect

Typed connectors in EA

How can I create this kind of "typed connector" as shown in UML 2.5.1 specification on page 187 in Enterprise Architect?

enter image description here

Solution

  • Left of the diagram you linked you see enter image description here which shows a named association Axle. Now your picture shows an instance of these: the two classes as objects (I omit the third) and the association as link. If you do that in EA (drag as instance and choose Copy connectors) enter image description here

    you get this: enter image description here

    EA simply copies the association name to the link. And that's it. It has no instance link internally (historically and connectors were always 2nd class citizens in EA).

    Now the only thing you could do is to edit the name of the link in it's properties and manually prepend e.g. fancy: which then yields enter image description here

    This is so far the best you can do. If you are after a real instance behavior (where the link name chages when you change the association name) you need to send a feature request. Good luck with that :-x

    P.S. It might be a bug and the link should have been named :Axis to indicate it being an instance. Have not cross checked with the specs.

    P.P.S.: The spec is a bit wishy-washy. The names in the examples should be underlined (they are historical pictures and have not been altered; I can only speculate about the document generation process but it's obviously some Mickeysoft-Word-thingy). For the link there's some text (2nd paragraph p. 128) with not necessary to show which for a spec is a bit questionable. Well...