Precondition UML? - android-activity

I'm using Agilian 3.2 to build a small activity diagram. The diagram contains a couple of actions. The problem is: I'd like to display the precondition somewhere in the diagram. Is there any standard way to define preconditions for an action or activity diagram in Agilian?

Usually you add a kind of pink rectangle which is a kind of note which is related to constraints. These constrains could be added on any model element. I don't know about this Agilian 3.2 tool but it should certainly be possible.
Tis is a basic modeling feature including in almost all good tools.

Related

How to change arrow head size of connectors in Enterprise Architect?

I created some diagram in Enterprise Architect and feel that the arrow heads are to big. This is with Common Relationships of type Dependency.
How can I change the size and/or shape of the arrow heads? There seems to be no such option in the GUI.
You simply can't, unless you create your own stereotype and write your own shapescript to go along with it.
Remember EA is a modelling tool, not a diagram tool.
In a modelling language you assign a meaning to a specific shape. Different arrows mean different things, so it seems like a bad idea to allow the user to change the shape of the arrows.

Fluent Design Menus in Hololens

I'm currently designing a Hololens application and I'm pretty new to everything. The menu right now seems a little "old-school" for my taste. I'd like to create a user-friendly menu that could be pinned in place or move around as the user wishes.
I've been checking out fluent designs and found the DesignLab toolkit (https://unitylist.com/p/19/MR-Design-Labs-Unity) but its from 2017. Is there anything new I could use to make my menus?
You can use the ButtonHolographic from the HoloToolkit Example. These are flat designed uwp buttons. Take a look at the example scenes from the holotoolkit-example.
Check out the PressableButton.prefab in MRTK. This aligns pretty exactly with the system style and fluent design. There's documentation here:
https://microsoft.github.io/MixedRealityToolkit-Unity/Documentation/README_Button.html
It's relatively easy to use the same materials and shaders to create a background panel for text or other things that aren't buttons.
Keep an eye out for how the shader reacts when MRTK's simulated hand approaches it. There's a lot of cool reactive fluent elements there.

How does one create a component which can effect things outside of runtime?

So I want to make a custom component. One of the functions I want to have is the ability to create and modify set of points that make up a circle. For example, specify point count:10, and on field update, a circle made up of 10 triangles is drawn in the editor.
Then I want to be able to drag the vertices of the created circle. I feel like I might be able to do this during runtime, but I'm curious how to do it out of runtime. For example, the built in "Box Collider" component has a button that allows you to edit the collider size in the editor.
I looked around and can't find a resource - I feel like there has to be a place for this.
Thanks.
You can execute scripts like if you were in runtime using the [ExecuteInEditMode] annotation at the begining of your class.
Check out the documentation here
For the functionality you want, you have Handles, to manipulate objects properties.
Also you'll want to develop visual aids for your tool, so you can accomplish this using Gizmos.
Google "Custom Editors for Unity" - there's a whole section of the docs for this. You have a wide array of options, from the simple to the powerful.
I recommend catlikecoding's tutorials, that are clearly than the official docs, and take you through the process step by step.
One of them almost exactly describes your situation:
http://catlikecoding.com/unity/tutorials/editor/star/

smartgwt drawing

I am new to GWT and working on a project involving RPC and MySQL. I want to dynamically draw a network diagram which includes ovals and lines with arrows. I am considering using SmartGWT DrawOval and DrawLinePath.
1) Does it make sense to use SmartGWT for only drawing shapes and using GWT for other things like layouts/widgets/RPC/etc?
2)I know that it is recommended to not mix GWT and SmartGWT, so I want to know if I can safely use drawing widgets with other GWT components.
3) Is there better alternative than SmartGWT for drawing?
Thanks.
Nope, your approach is not a good one because of the answer to your second one.
No, it is not safe, as it is not recommended. Better only use SmartGWT components for your UI elements. But I suspect that you are a bit confused here. Only UI elements are not to be mixed. All the other facilities of GWT (i.e. RPC mechanisms), can, and actually will be required to, be part of your solution.
I see the following options:
Use SmartGWT UI elements for all your layers/widgets and of course use the drawing shapes you have identified to create your solution.
Use GWT elements and use other drawing libraries to achieve your goals. Such can be: gwt-connectors, raphaelgwt, lib-gwt-svg, depending whether connectors or simple lines are enough for your specifications.
Use SmartGWT UI elements and embed one of the above libraries to cover cases that the provided elements can't support. This can be tricky as the success of such marriage is not always guaranteed, but it can't be dismissed either. I had success, with such an approach, by using the lib-gwt-svg.

Vector drawing tool for iPhone development

This isn't strictly a programming question, but I'm asking it here because it's certainly a software development question, if you take "software development" to include all aspects of creating a software system.
I am an independent iPhone developer. Except for translations, I handle all aspects of my apps myself—graphics included. I have to create icons, buttons, and UI elements of all sorts on a regular basis. I've learned a few tricks along these lines, and while they're certainly not works of art, I can effectively use gradients, shadows, border strokes, transparency, and textures to create minimalistic, attractive effects.
So far, I've used a vector drawing tool called VectorDesigner for all of my development, with occasional raster postprocessing by Pixelmator. It's worked mostly okay so far, but VectorDesigner has a host of issues:
It uses a package format for its files, which interferes with the use of Subversion.
It is very much a print tool, and I have to be very careful not to end up with objects on fractional pixel values which cause antialiasing.
While you can take the union or intersection of shapes, or add and subtract them, curves tend to deform with repeated boolean operations, sometimes quite dramatically.
And it offers very little control over strokes, to the point where I barely use them.
So I'm looking for a better tool for this specific purpose: shape-based drawing of simple icons, buttons, and UI elements on a Mac by someone without graphic design training. Good functions for exporting would be a plus—ideally it should be almost as easy to export a PNG to the place it goes in my project as it is to save (not save as) the file.
The perfect tool for me would be one that would allow you to define an object's shape by stacking up areas and masks defined by primitive shapes (which would remain separately editable), then define properties on those objects like transforms and strokes. I have no idea if something like this exists, though.
Adobe's tools generally strike me as very heavyweight, and are usually expensive, but I suppose they're a possibility. (Fireworks, with its emphasis on screen design, seems like it might be particularly suitable, but I don't know that much about it.) But what else is out there? If you're in a position like me, what do you use? What do you recommend?
Edited to add: Of course a graphic designer could get better results from an ancient copy of MacPaint than I could from Illustrator CS5. No tool can replace skill and taste, and many programmers have little of either. I'm aware of that. But I'm fortunate enough to have at least some taste—enough that my users compliment my apps' appearance in their reviews. I'm not hugely talented, but I do know my limitations, and I don't let myself produce anything ugly. Given my budget, that will have to do for now.
Try Opacity. A little rough on the edges, but one of the coolest and most unique features they have is export as source code (in Quartz, Cocoa, Cocoa Touch, or Canvas)
I'd suggest OmniGraffle
OmniGraffle is easy to use, can save as a PNG, can create binary non-package files (it's an option in the interface). You can also set the units to pixels to ensure exact alignment. (Canvas Size -> Ruler Units)
Finally, the Graffletopia website has some nice iPhone stencils for getting it right:
http://graffletopia.com/search/iphone
I think the only acceptable answer here should be "hire a designer".
But it sounds like Pixelmator/Inkscape are your best bets.
Though if you do find something better, that'd be really cool. Like a jQueryUI but for native.