Animation code differences for code-centric mode

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The animation feature in IBM® Engineering Systems Design Rhapsody® is made possible due to instrumentation code that the product inserts when it generates code for configurations where Instrumentation Mode has been set to Animation.

Because the underlying approach in code-centric mode is to minimize the intrusion into your code, there is a difference in the way animation code is generated in code-centric mode, compared to animation code generated in model-centric mode:

In code-centric mode, when code is generated for animation, only the files that contain animated elements are generated, rather than all the files as is the case in model-centric mode.

As is the case with model-centric mode, animation code that is generated is framed within #ifdef _OMINSTRUMENT blocks. If you make changes to the code within these blocks, roundtripping will ignore these changes.

Because code is not generated for diagrams such as statecharts and activity diagrams in code-centric mode, the only type of diagram that can be animated is a sequence diagram.

To further minimize the intrusion into your code as the result of animation, you can use the following Rhapsody features when animating in code-centric mode:

  • Use the Animate option in the pop-up menu for Sequence Diagrams to specify which sequence diagrams to animate. (When you use this option, all classes included in the diagram will be animated.)
  • Use the Advanced Instrumentation Settings window (accessed through the Advanced button on the Settings tab of the Features window for configurations) to specify that instrumentation code is to be generated for only certain type of elements, such as operations.
  • Use the Advanced Instrumentation Settings window to specify that instrumentation code generates only for specific diagrams, classes, or both.

While the instrumentation code is less intrusive in code-centric mode, it is important to keep in mind the following information when using animation:

  • In ordinary code-centric code generation, code is generated only for modified elements within a file. When using animation, however, files that contain any animated elements will be regenerated in their entirety.
  • If you are working with a single Rhapsody configuration and change the Instrumentation Mode to Animation, then the files generated by Rhapsody will overwrite those files currently in your output directory.
  • If a file has been generated for animation purposes, it will be generated in full each time you generate code (selective code updating is not used) until the next time you roundtrip the code. This means that to restore selective code update behavior for files that contained instrumentation code, you must:
    • change the animation settings so that instrumentation code is not generated
    • regenerate the code
    • roundtrip the generated file
  • Even though auto-generated code is not typically generated in code-centric mode, if you are using animation there are cases where Rhapsody might generate some auto‑generated elements, for example, generating a constructor if your code does not contain one.