computer science

MagicDraw

MagicDraw is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand MagicDraw rather than just read about it. In short: MagicDraw is a proprietary visual UML, SysML, BPMN, and UPDM modeling tool with team collaboration support. Features Domain specific language The domain specific language (DSL) customization engine allows for adapting MagicDraw to a specific profile and modeling domain, thus allowing the customization of multiple GUIs, model initialization, adding semantic rules, and creating one's own specification dialogs and smar…

Key takeaways

MagicDraw belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect MagicDraw to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of MagicDraw from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

MagicDraw is a proprietary visual UML, SysML, BPMN, and UPDM modeling tool with team collaboration support.

Features

Domain specific language The domain specific language (DSL) customization engine allows for adapting MagicDraw to a specific profile and modeling domain, thus allowing the customization of multiple GUIs, model initialization, adding semantic rules, and creating one's own specification dialogs and smart manipulators. The ability to use multiple specific customizations helps to make MagicDraw better oriented to specific platforms, technologies or domains, and can even hide UML entirely. Active validation allows the checking of domain specific models in real time and suggests help and can even fix some issues. DSL elements can be converted to any subtype or a more general type using the "Convert to" function. DSL allows custom derived properties to be created that allow extending a UML metamodel or its profile. All DSL'ed elements can be numbered by using the generic numbering mechanism. The elements can be numbered in consecutive or multi-level style. The separator or prefix of number can be changed during the element numbering.

Model decomposition Model Decomposition is a function which can split projects and other work into independent parts.

Lazy loading allows the specification of modules that should not be loaded into memory by default when a project is started. Module elements are only loaded as they are specifically requested. Read–Write modules allow module editing of a fragmented model. It is also used during model refactoring. Since MagicDraw has the ability to have flexible control over the dependencies between model parts, it is possible to continue working with the product without resolving dependencies between model parts. Indexing – ability to create an index of an unloaded module. It allows using part of the elements of the module without loading it.

Template-based documentation generation Fully customizable templates can be created in the style and format preferred by the user. Reports can be exported into variety of file formats (OpenDocument (*.odt), RTF (*.rtf), Microsoft Word (*.docx), Microsoft Excel (*.xlsx), Microsoft PowerPoint (*.pptx), XML, HTML, XHTML). Reports can be personalized with characters, paragraphs, and fonts that are supported by a chosen file format. MagicDraw has the ability to import RTF documents or parts of them into reports (Import tool), to get Teamwork Project Information and upload reports to a remote location. It includes JavaScript Tool which enables report templates to evaluate or run JavaScript codes from templates and external JavaScript files. It also supports a rich set of image manipulation methods that enable image transformation during report generation. MagicDraw supports Microsoft Word and Open Document Format template.

Templates for SDD and UCS (Software Design Document and Use Case Specification), architectural templates: use case report, structural report, behavioral report, implementation report, environment report, Model Extension, Data Dictionary, Business Process Modeling Notation, Web publisher with collaboration ability for commenting on and editing report data through a web browser.

Analysis facilities The following analysis facilities are available in MagicDraw:

The Dependency Matrix allows visualizing relationships of a large system in a compact way. Export to .csv is also available. Traceability between different levels of abstraction which makes it possible to find more specific and realizing elements, usually not from the same view. This allows for handy specification and realization discovery, and navigation. Predefined traceability suites are customizable to customers’ needs. Visual model differencing allows viewing the changes made between two different versions of a model. Representation of the number of class and package dependencies is automatically generated after code is reverse engineered. Usage in Diagrams allows viewing the diagrams on which a particular data element was represented.

Model refactoring Model refactoring like code refactoring is the disciplined technique used for modifying or improving an existing model. The following refactoring functions are available in MagicDraw:

Element conversion Relationship direction reversion Diagram extraction (this function is available only for the activity and composite structure diagrams)

Transformations MagicDraw provides transformation of UML models to specific XML Schema and DB models (generic and Oracle DDL) and vice versa, and any to any transformation. Also model-to-model transformations between the same or different meta-models can be defined and run directly in MagicDraw by using the QVT plugin. The QVT (Query/View/Transformation) is a standard defined by the Object Management Group.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with MagicDraw

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what MagicDraw claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to MagicDraw before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about MagicDraw ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of MagicDraw

In research: MagicDraw appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses MagicDraw in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: MagicDraw is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Diagramming software, Enterprise architecture, Systems Modeling Language, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for MagicDraw outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study MagicDraw in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what MagicDraw means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain MagicDraw out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is MagicDraw in simple terms?

MagicDraw is a proprietary visual UML, SysML, BPMN, and UPDM modeling tool with team collaboration support. Features Domain specific language The domain specific language (DSL) customization engine allows for adapting MagicDraw to a specific profile and modeling domain, thus allowing the customizat…

Why does MagicDraw matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study MagicDraw?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on MagicDraw.