Diagramming techniques and diagramming assistance
IBM DevOps Model Architect provide context-sensitive tools, such as diagram assist, action toolbars, connector handles, and content assist, that guide you as you create UML diagrams.
Diagram assist
The diagram assist features help you to create complex UML diagrams in less time, using fewer keystrokes and mouse movements. As you create a UML diagram, the diagram assist features prompt you with visual cues that form a simplified, but very powerful context-sensitive user interface. This simplified user interface can increase the effective size of your screen by allowing you to remove elements of the traditional user interface, such as the file menu or the palette.
Action toolbars
Action toolbars appear in the diagram editor when you hover over a spot in the diagram. The action toolbar is a hovering toolbar that provides access to only the set of elements that are specific to the context of the current diagram. For example, when you hover over a class diagram, an action tool bar appears that allows you to add a class, an enumeration, an artifact, a signal, a stereotyped class, an interface, or a package.
Connector handles
Similar to action bars, connector handles appear when you hover over a UML element in a diagram. Connector handles appear as arrowheads that you can drag onto another element in the diagram to create a relationship. You can use connector handles to model the relationship between two UML elements, or to create a relationship to a new UML element.
Content assist
Content assist is a built-in Eclipse modeling aid that provides suggestions, displays valid code listings, and attempts to complete your code as you type it. You can use content assist to edit property types and method signatures in a class diagram. When you type the name of a property, and then type a colon (:), you will see a list of all possible return value types. To select an item in the list, use the scroll bar to view the value types and double-click a return type and complete the signature.