Converting sketches to models

After you sketch a simple diagram, you can convert the sketch elements to elements in another sketch or convert the entire sketch to a different type of model.

About this task

When you convert a sketch to a model, you can model the concepts of the sketch in greater detail. You can copy the sketch elements to a new sketch, or you can convert the sketch elements to elements of another type of model.

The modeling tools that are installed determine which types of models you can convert sketches to:

You can always convert a sketch to another sketch to create a copy of the sketch.
If you installed the UML modeling tools, you can convert sketches to new UML models or diagrams in existing UML models. See Converting sketch elements to UML elements.
If you installed the deployment planning tools, you can convert sketches to new topologies or diagrams in existing topologies. See Converting sketch elements to topology elements.

Procedure

Complete these steps to convert an entire diagram to another sketch or model. You can also convert individual sketch elements to other model elements by right-clicking an element and then clicking Convert to.

In the sketch editor, right-click a blank space on the sketch and then click Convert to.
Click the type of model to convert the sketch to:
- To convert the sketch to another sketch, click New Sketch and type a name and location for the new sketch.
- To convert the sketch to a new topology, click New Topology and type a name and location for the new topology.
- To convert the sketch to a new diagram in an existing topology, click New Topology Diagram, select the topology, and type a name for the new diagram.
- To convert the sketch to a new UML model, click New UML Model and then specify the information for the new UML model.
- To convert the sketch to a new diagram in an existing UML model, click the type of diagram.

Results

The new sketch, model, or diagram contains copies of the elements in the original sketch. Now you can model the concepts in the sketch in greater detail without losing the information in the original sketch.

If you converted the model to a new sketch and set the sketch editor preferences to create links, the original sketch and the new sketch contain links to the other in the top left corner. Each sketch element also has a link to its equivalent element in the other sketch, as shown in the following figure. This link appears only when the sketch element is selected.

Links from the new sketch to the original sketch

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