Friday, 24 January 2020 15:57

Applying Layers to Diagrams in EA 15.1

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Diagram Layers

As I'm sure we all know by now EA 15.1 is available for registered users to get to grips with. Like a kid in a candy store I went & grabbed it right away so that I could play with one of the new features in particular...diagram layers.

I was particularly keen to get to grips with this feature as recently I have been building up some beefy BPMN 2.0 Collaboration diagrams for some of our internal processes here at Dunstan Thomas. The challenge I was facing was how do I communicate a large process to a stakeholder that does not understand the notation (or any notation) without making their brain explode? Up until now I had resorted to explaining the process one logical path (and the branches therein) at time and walking through step by step. This works but it's not ideal...luckily some of our favorite Australian developers have had an absolutely great idea of being able to add layers to our diagrams (of our own specification) that will then allow us to toggle said layers on and off, thereby hiding any elements not contained by the layer we are focussing on.

I have found this invaluable already in communicating with non-technical stakeholders larger diagrams as I can temporarily hide anything I am not currently presenting and thus removing the risk of an overwhelmed stakeholder losing interest. 

I have put together a short clip on how easy it is to apply layers to your diagrams with EA 15.1: https://youtu.be/cFQ0-ecSsTg

Go and download EA 15.1 and try it yourself, it is so easy to do and we are already finding client interest in this feature.

Read 4009 times Last modified on Tuesday, 28 January 2020 22:58
DT_Sam

Sam Nice

Dunstan Thomas Consulting

4 comments

  • Comment Link David Vink Friday, 21 April 2023 03:00 posted by David Vink

    hi. any update with this please? I just encountered the same bug and would like to know if an upgrade would fix it

  • Comment Link Dennis Monday, 15 November 2021 10:57 posted by Dennis

    Hi there,
    Is this bug already fixed? And if so, from which build?
    At my employer we are working on build 15.1.1526
    Thanks in advance!

  • Comment Link DT_Sam Friday, 14 February 2020 16:09 posted by DT_Sam

    Bug confirmed, watch this space!

  • Comment Link DT_Sam Friday, 31 January 2020 09:54 posted by DT_Sam

    I have actually noticed a bug with the Diagram Layers. Currently, if you turn a layer off on your diagram it renders fine inside of EA & hide the elements and connectors associated with the layer. However...if you save that diagram as an image (for inclusion in documentation) your elements remain hidden, but the connectors do not! This leaves you with a mass of floating connectors connected to seemingly nothing.

    At first I thought I had simply forgotten to add them to my layer, but you cannot actually add a connector to a layer in first place...hence my suspicion that this is actually a bug.

    I'll keep you posted as I experiment with this :)

    Sam

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