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Thursday, 25 August 2022 08:07

eaUtils 1.19.10: Enterprise Architect 16 64 bit & QEA/QEAx support, improved visible relations, search connectors

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eaUtils 1.19.7 Find in all diagrams connecteurs

eaUtils 1.19.10 has been released with the following enhancements:

  • Enterprise Architect 16 support with the new QEA and QEAx files and the 64-bit application.
  • Improved visible relations management feature with additional details and options.
  • Additional built-in searches on connectors.

Enterprise Architect 16 support

Enterprise Architect 16 has introduced a new file format for EA projects based on SQLite with the QEA and QEAx extensions, replacing the traditional EAP and EAPx based on the Jet Engine (see EA 16 beta preview).

eaUtils now supports this new file format.

The other major impact of EA16 on add-ins is the 64-bit support; EA16 can be installed in its 32 and/or 64-bit version. Existing add-ins work fine with any EA 32 bit, yet the 64-bit version requires an update.

This has now been addressed: eaUtils installation files are available in the 32 and 64-bit versions. To use eaUtils with EA 16 64 bit, the appropriate 64 bits installation file (standard or portable) must be installed.

Visible relations

Set Visible Relationships is a useful built-in EA feature to review and manage the visible and hidden relations for a diagram.

However I found that it was sometimes limited e.g. when working on a a diagram with stereotyped relations (ArchiMate or MDG), or with many linked elements of various types and stereotypes due to the flat list of relation type followed by the source and target element types:

 EA Set Visible Relations

eaUtils provides an advanced version of this feature mainly 1. to group relations by relation type and stereotype to help find the right relations to show or hide, and 2. to allow the update of several relations visibility with a few clicks, instead of clicking on each relation.

With eaUtils 1.19.10, the following enhancements have been included:

  • Additional grouping level with the source element.
  • Options to show the source and target element packages and/or aliases.
  • Improved loading time.

eaUtils visible relations screen below is illustrated below, for the following class diagram.

 eautils visible relations class diagram

 eaUtils Diagram Visible Relations

 A legend helps understand the tree structure: relations are grouped by connector type (red), connector stereotype (green), and source element name (blue). Disabled relations are hidden, whilst the enabled one are visible.

Enabling the Show Package option, the tree structure content is updated as follows: the package name is added within square bracket before each source and target element name, e.g. [Visible Relations 2]::Class::Class1.

 EA eaUtils Diagram Visible Relations show package

Enabling the Show Alias option, the content is updated as follows: the alias of the classes is shown after each element name e.g. Class1 (ABC). When the alias is empty, nothing is added.

 EA eaUtils Diagram Visible Relations show alias

Built-in search on connectors

It is possible to embed an MDG technology within an add-in. MDG often refer to the stereotype mechanism to extend standard notations such as UML, SysML, or ArchiMate. MDG can also include various custom definitions such as built-in searches. 

I’ve identified a few custom searches that I often use to query a model repository e.g. to search by element by GUID or Object ID, an attribute by GUID or ID, etc. This is particularly useful when writing custom queries or scripts. These queries are published via eaUtils built-in MDG.

In this new release, I added a custom search on connectors by GUID, ID or stereotype.

Open the Model Search (Ctrl+F), select eaUtils MDG, and choose a relevant search.

 eautils custom search connector by guid id stereotype

Search connectors by stereotype:

 eautils custom search connector by stereotype

Search a connector by ID:

 eautils custom search connector by id

The latest version of eaUtils can be downloaded here: www.eautils.com/download.