You can place attributes in a model. This makes attribute information available directly in the model. Placed attributes provide various advantages, for example: If you change the value of a placed attribute, the change is immediately displayed in the model. If you place a link in the model, you can jump directly from the model to the target of the link.
In an open model, you can place any attribute of objects and connections, not just the name, visibly in the modeling area. For quick placement, you can use several fixed positions in and around the object.
Procedure
Select the object or connection for which you want to place a new attribute.
Activate the Start tab bar if not already selected.
Click Attribute placement.
Click Create attribute placement. The Select attribute dialog opens.
Enable the Show specified attributes only check box. Then only the attributes with a value are made available for selection.
Enter the first letters of the required attribute name. All attributes whose names contain the term you entered are displayed.
Enable the check box of the attribute you want to place.
Click OK. The dialog closes and a frame for the attribute is displayed in the modeling area.
Click anywhere in the modeling area. The attribute is placed and identified by handles.
Click Attribute placement.
Click the position of the object where the attribute should be placed, for example,
Top right.
The attribute is placed in the selected position at the object or the connection. You can specify to display the name of the placed attribute. You can also specify to display certain attributes as a symbol.
Select the freely placed attributes that you want to place at a fixed position. Their handles are displayed.
Activate the Start tab bar if not already selected.
Click Attribute placement.
Click the position of the object where the attribute should be placed, for example,
Top right.
The attributes are placed at the objects at the position selected. You can specify to display the name of the placed attribute. You can also specify to display certain attributes as a symbol.
In an open model, you can place any attribute of objects and connections, not just the name, visibly in the modeling area. You can place attributes freely and
.In an open model, you can place any attribute of objects and connections, not just the name, visibly in the modeling area. For quick placement, you can use several fixed positions in and around the object.
Procedure
Select the object or connection for which you want to place a new attribute.
Activate the Start tab bar if not already selected.
Click Attribute placement.
Click Create attribute placement. The Select attribute dialog opens.
Enable the Show specified attributes only check box. Then only the attributes with a value are made available for selection.
Enter the first letters of the required attribute name. All attributes whose names contain the term you entered are displayed.
Enable the check box of the attribute you want to place.
Click OK. The dialog closes and a frame for the attribute is displayed in the modeling area.
Click anywhere in the modeling area. The attribute is placed and identified by handles.
Click Attribute placement.
Click the position of the object where the attribute should be placed, for example,
Top right.
The attribute is placed in the selected position at the object or the connection. You can specify to display the name of the placed attribute. You can also specify to display certain attributes as a symbol.
Select the freely placed attributes that you want to place at a fixed position. Their handles are displayed.
Activate the Start tab bar if not already selected.
Click Attribute placement.
Click the position of the object where the attribute should be placed, for example,
Top right.
The attributes are placed at the objects at the position selected. You can specify to display the name of the placed attribute. You can also specify to display certain attributes as a symbol.
Procedure
Select the object or connection for which you want to place a new attribute.
Activate the Start tab bar if not already selected.
Click Attribute placement.
Click Create attribute placement. The Select attribute dialog opens.
Enable the Show specified attributes only check box. Then only the attributes with a value are made available for selection.
Enter the first letters of the required attribute name. All attributes whose names contain the term you entered are displayed.
Click the name of the attribute you want to place.
Click OK. The dialog closes and a frame for the attribute is displayed in the modeling area.
In the modeling area, click the position where you want to place the attribute.
The attribute is placed in the selected position in the modeling area.
Filter for the relevant attribute in the Properties bar.
Move the mouse pointer over the attribute. The More menu is displayed.
Click More >
Place attribute.
In the modeling area, click the position where you want to place the attribute.
The attribute is placed.
Click the placed attribute you want to reposition and hold down the mouse button.
The handles are displayed.
Drag the attribute to the position in the modeling area where you want to place it and release the mouse button.
The attribute is placed in the selected position in the modeling area.
In an open model, you can place model attributes, such as Name or Type, in the modeling area.
Procedure
Make sure that neither an object nor a connection is selected.
Filter for the relevant attribute in the Properties bar.
Move the mouse pointer over the attribute. The More menu is displayed.
Click More >
Place attribute.
In the modeling area, click the position where you want to place the attribute.
The attribute is placed. You can specify to display the name of the placed attribute. You can also specify to display certain attributes as a symbol.
When you place an object in the modeling area, the name of the object is output as an attribute. The name attribute is usually placed within the object. You can place additional attributes of objects in the modeling area to have the relevant information available directly in the modeling area.
If you want to place more attributes of an object, it is useful to place them near the object to which they belong. It can however occur that in the layout objects are positioned very close to one another making it difficult to say which object a placed attribute belongs to. You can also place attributes freely. If an attribute was placed farther away from its object it may be difficult to assign the placed attribute after the layout is changed.
When you click the placed attribute, the placed attribute receives handles () as markers and its object is also provided with handles. This enables you to see
to which object a placed attribute belongs.
If you move an object, its placed attributes are also moved.
In an open model, you can select placed attributes to place them at another position or to remove placed attribute.
Procedure
Click a placed attribute in the modeling area. The attribute is marked by handles
().
Press the Ctrl key, and click additional placed attributes you want to reposition or remove.
You can now delete or reposition the selected attributes.
In an open model, you can edit the placed text attributes of the model, objects, and connections in the modeling area. You cannot change or delete the attribute values of attributes that the system defines. Such values are placed in gray cells, for example, Type.
Procedure
Click the placed attribute. It now has handles.
Click on the text attribute again. The attribute is selected for editing.
Change the text attribute as necessary.
Press Enter or click in the model background.
The attribute is changed.
In an open model, you can format the free-form text and placed attributes of the model, objects, and connections in the modeling area.
Prerequisite
The attribute you selected can be edited. You cannot change or delete the attribute values of attributes that the system defines. Such values are placed in gray cells, for example, Type.
Procedure
Double-click the free-form text or the placed attribute of a model, object, or connection so that the text is selected. The formatting toolbar is shown.
In the formatting toolbar, click the button for the formatting you want to assign
to the selected attribute, for example, Increase indent.
The formatting information is directly applied to the selected attribute.
Click an empty area in the modeling area. The attribute selection is undone.
You have formatted the placed attribute.
In an open model, you can specify to display the name of the placed attribute in the modeling area.
Procedure
Select the placed attribute whose attribute name you want to display in the modeling area.
Activate the Start tab bar if not already selected.
Click Attribute placement.
Enable the With name check box.
The attribute name is placed in front of the attribute value.
In an open model, you can display certain attributes as a symbol if they are placed. If such an attribute was specified and placed, for example, the Existence attribute, the As a symbol check box is displayed. If you enable the check box, for the Existence attribute, a plus sign is placed in the model instead of Yes and a minus sign instead of No.
Prerequisite
The attribute can be represented by a symbol. This is the case if you select the attribute and the As a symbol check box becomes available.
Procedure
Select the placed attribute you want to represent with a symbol, for example, Existence.
Activate the Start tab bar if not already selected.
Click Attribute placement.
Enable the As a symbol check box.
The placed attribute is represented as a symbol.
You can place the attributes of objects in the modeling area , so that they can emphasize additional, important aspects in the model.
A symbol can be placed instead of a value for some attributes, which allows the attribute value to be identified immediately.
If such an attribute was specified and placed, for example, the Existence attribute, the As a symbol check box is displayed. If you enable the check box, for the Existence attribute, a plus sign is placed in the model instead of Yes and a minus sign instead of No.
Attribute symbols can be assigned to other attributes for placement.
In opened models, you can copy the formats of a selected item to another item or to several other items.
The following applies to placed attributes and free-form texts:
If object or connection occurrences are the targets, all placed attributes of the target are modified. The position is not changed.
If placed attributes or free-form texts are the targets, the target text is modified. The position is not changed.
You can remove multiple placed model, object, or connection attributes from the modeling area in a single step. Of course, only the attribute placement is deleted and not the value that was placed.
Procedure
Press the Ctrl key and click the placed attributes you want to delete from the modeling area.
Press Del.
The placements of the selected attributes are removed without prompting for confirmation.
Select the object or connection whose attribute placements you want to remove.
Activate the Start tab bar if not already selected.
Click Attribute placement > Delete attribute placement. The dialog is displayed.
Enable the check boxes for the placed attributes whose attribute placement you want to delete. You can enable all check boxes at once by enabling the check box Attribute name.
Click OK.
The placements of the selected attributes are removed.
You have removed multiple placed attributes.
In an open model, you can remove placed attributes from the modeling area. Of course, only the attribute placement is deleted and not the value that was placed.
Procedure
Select the placed attribute whose placement you want to remove.
Press Del.
The placement of the selected attribute is removed without prompting for confirmation.
You can also remove multiple placed attributes at one go.