Working with Architecture views – BlueDolphin

The term view in BlueDolphin refers to the location where users visualize their ideas in a diagram. Take, for example, Architecture designs or Business Process Management outlines to gain insight into a chain or visualize a specific object.

Start creating your own view by using a blank canvas or from a relationship diagram of an object.

Click Views within BlueDolphin to start with the interface below. You will see the toolbar with a canvas:

Your most recently edited view will be opened automatically.

Note: Any change you make on the canvas is saved immediately to the view. For this reason, a save button is not present.

You can enter or change the name of the current view in the text box on the far left of the toolbar.

The purpose and functioning of the available buttons are explained here.

Add an existing object

Create a relationship between two objects

Group objects

Publish a view

Download a view

Collaborate on a view

Open a view

For more information on how to open a view, please see here.

Object quick actions

When you click on an object, the menu with quick actions becomes available.

Action	Description
	Modify background color
	Modify text color and size
	Draw all existing relationships (one level deep) of the selected object in the view.
	Link an object, free shape, relationship or line to a view.
	Create a relationship with an object. BlueDolphin will present possible relationships when you click on the other object with the relationship tool. Note: Possible relationships between object combinations are configured by an Administrator.
	Remove or delete the object. In the screen that follows, you can choose whether you only want to remove the object from the view or if you want to delete the object from the repository.

Object context menu

In addition to the quick actions, you can view the context menu with extra possibilities by right-clicking on an object in the view.

Action	Description
Open object	Leaves the view and opens the selected object.
Group objects	Puts the selected object(s) into a group. The group is an element which is movable.
Add new relationship	Adds a relationship between two objects, if the selected related object is not present in the view, it will be added.
Delete	The selected object(s) will be deleted from the view. During this process you can choose whether the objects should also be deleted from the database.
Child objects	Allows you to create or add existing child objects (limit 50 child objects) to the selected object based on the 'Composition' relationship. For example: Note: You can only create or add child objects that are of the same object definition as the parent object.
Layout	Lets you: Set the dimensions of the selected object(s) to that of the first selected object. Change the background color of the selected object(s). Change the text color of the selected object(s).
Alignment	Allows you to align the selected object(s) against the first selected object.
Layer	Modifies how the selected object(s) overlap with other objects. Bring to front - Bring all the way to the front. Send to back - Send all the way to the bottom. Bring forward - Move it one step up. Send backward - Move it one step down.

Create a new object

In the views screen you can also add an object to the repository. For this, you can use the option Create new object in the toolbar.

In addition, you can create a new object after you have found out that the object does not exist yet. See the section below for more information.

Add an existing object

You can add an existing object to the view in several ways:

Double-click the canvas.
Right-click the canvas and choose Add object.
Drag from the object browser.

When you double-click on the canvas and select Add object, you will get the following screen:

If you want to add an object that is not yet present in BlueDolphin, you get the option Create this object.

After you have selected this option, you will get the screen below. The object is created in the database and added to the view after selecting the appropriate object definition.

Create a relationship between two objects

If you want to create a relationship between two objects, you can do this via the magic stick. When you select the relationship tool from the toolbar, you need to click on two objects between which you want to create a relationship. When the relationship tool is selected via the “quick actions” of an object, simply click on the object that you want to make a relationship with.

The context menu:

Shows how many relationships already exist between the two objects. You can open the submenu to select a specific relationship to add to the view.
Shows if a derived relationship exists between the two objects. Clicking on this option will add that relationship to the view.
Shows which type of relationships are allowed by the system administrator. Clicking on the plus icon creates a new relationship of that type. Selecting one of the existing relationships from the submenu adds it to the view.

Possible relationships between object types are maintained by the admin of the site.

Group objects

If you want to group objects in a view, for example because they belong together logically, you can do so by performing the following steps.

1. Select the objects that you want to group.

2. In the context menu select the option Group objects or use the combination <CTRL>-<G>.

3. The title of the group can be changed by double-clicking it.

Once a group is present, you can drag objects in and out of the group. Objects then automatically become part of the group. The size of the group is automatically adjusted. When you drag the last object out of the group, the group will be deleted.

Note: Grouping and ungrouping actions cannot be undone.

Publish a view

You can publish your own view when it is ready for sharing with other users. Other users can open the published view but not edit it. The published view is a non-editable copy of the original.

For more information on how to publish a view, see here.

Download a view

To use the image of a view, for example in a document, you can download the view as a file in PNG, SVG, PDF and AMEFF format.

Click on the three-dot menu in the toolbar and select Download.

Choose the file format and click OK. The file is now downloaded to your local machine.

Collaborate on a view

You can choose the collaborate feature if you want to work on a view with several people at the same time. To start collaborating, click on the three-dot menu from the toolbar and select Share.

Next, the screen appears where you can add the people with whom you want to share the view.

You can add a user by clicking on the plus sign through the combo box below Add user. You can see on the screen the people you share the view with. The shared view is visible under the Shared views category by the people with whom you have shared the view with. When you open a shared view, you will see that BlueDolphin connects with a collaborative environment.

You will receive notifications when people enter or leave the collaboration space. Changes that are made by other people will be directly visible to you. This way all users have the same version of the view.

To see all keyboard/mouse shortcuts available in BlueDolphin, go here.

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