• Properties
  • Properties
  • Attributes
• Graphical Properties
  • General Properties
  • Font
  • Fill
  • Border Line
  • Flow Font
  • Flow Line

Properties

From the right-click menu of an object, you can access its Properties. Other access possibilities include Properties button in the Object Panel of the Home Category and a keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+P. When clicking on an object (single left-click) in the Internal Block Diagram or the treeview, the focus of the Properties changes automatically.

It is also possible to access the Properties from the Object Dictionary. If you have several flows passing through the same link, you can access the properties of flows by right-clicking on the link and selecting Properties.

When calling Properties menu for a link with several flows or for multiply selected objects of the same type, it is possible to switch between properties of selected objects.

In the Properties window, there can actually be three tabs: a tab called Properties, a tab called Location and a tab called Options. In the Properties tab, there are two sections of fields: Properties and Attributes.

Properties

The Type represents the type of the object. It is not modifiable.

The Name field corresponds to the name of this object. The field is editable and can be used to rename the object. In case of editing multiple objects this field is left empty and cannot be edited.

The Revision field displays information about object revision. It is not modifiable. Small color buttons allow direct access to "Revisions" dialog and "Create new revision" dialog. See Objects revision management.

Attributes

The Attributes section lists and allows to edit the values of the attributes of the object. Click on the text field next to name of an attribute to edit the attribute value.

Graphical Properties

Graphical properties dialog allows to edit the appearance of the object if the type has been defined as flexible in the meta-model by an arKItect Designer.

It is accessible though right-click menu of an object or link by selecting Graphical Properties. 

In Graphical Properties, you can edit the shape of the object, its background and foreground image, font color and type, fill and borderline color and so on.

When calling Graphical Properties menu for a link with several flows or for multiply selected objects of the same type, it is possible to switch between graphical properties of selected objects.

There are two options which help user to return to the default graphical settings:

• at the bottom of the Graphical Properties window, you see a check-box called Reset all objects. This check-box (when checked) allows you to return to the default graphical settings for all objects.
• right under the object name in the center, you see a check-box called Reset object. This check-box (when checked) allows you to return to the default graphical settings only for the selected object.

General Properties

The General section is the section visible by default. It contains the following information:

• Block Shape drop-down list: allows to choose the shape of the container displayed in the Internal Block Diagram and in the Palette.
• Background button: allows to add an image (supported formats are : .jpg, .bmp, .pcx, .tiff) to the object background in the Internal Block Diagram (visible as the background of the focus object).
• Foreground button: allows to add an image (supported formats are : .jpg, .bmp, .pcx, .tiff) to the object foreground in the Internal Block Diagram (visible to the parents of the object).

Font

The Font tab permits to choose the font options for the object name displayed on the container of the object instance:

• Font type
• Font effects (regular, bold, italic, underline, strike-out)
• Font size
• Font color

The tab also permits you to review the font.

Fill

The Fill tab permits you to control the following aspects:

• Foreground Color: the color filling the object container in the Internal Block Diagram (visible for the children of the focus object).
• Background Color: the color filling the object container background when a hatch type has been selected.
• Transparent Fill: the object foreground color is transparent.
• Transparent Background: the background color is transparent.
• Hatch: the hatch type for the foreground and background colors.

Border Line

The Border Line tab permits to define various options relative to the container border line:

• Color: the color of the container border line in the Internal Block Diagram.
• Transparent: define the border line as transparent.
• Style: the style of the border line (solid, dashed, dotted etc). A style can only be applied when the width is defined as O point (1 pixel).
• Width: the width of the border line.

Flow Font

The Flow Font tab permits to choose the options applied to the label of a flow instance:

• Font type
• Font effects (regular, bold, italic, underline, strike-out)
• Font size
• Font color

The tab also permits you to review the label font.

Flow Line

The Flow Line tab permits to define various options relative to links (flow instances) shown in diagrams:

• Color: the color of the link.
• Transparent: define the link as transparent.
• Style: the style of the link (solid, dashed, dotted etc). A style can only be applied when the width is defined as O point (1 pixel).
• Width: the width of the link.