pp108 : Working in Grid View

Working in Grid View
This topic describes how you can optimally use the menu options including the grid view feature in the model editor.

The grid view helps you to give a neat appearance and makes your model more appealing. It helps you to avoid cluttered appearance and provides greater clarity for viewing.

Note:

  • The grid view feature is available for Business Process Models, OSD (Organization Structure Diagram) and Case Management Models as well. The grid features of the model editor are turned on by default.
  • Distribute, align and resize are implemented parallel to grid, but are not necessarily related to it, because they will also work with grid disabled.
  1. Right-click in the business process modeling environment and select Show Grid. The grid view of the business process modelling environment appears.
  2. Right-click in the business process modeling environment and select Snap to Grid. The existing business process model or the business process model that you created neatly aligns to the grid.

    Note:
    If you do not select Snap to Grid, the BPMN constructs/shapes will not be aligned to the grid.

  3. Right-click in the business process modeling environment and select Align to align the constructs/shapes. Constructs/shapes are aligned based upon the selected option. For details on selection options, refer to Align Options in the topic Menu Options in Model Editors.
  4. Hold Shift key, select the (target) shape whose size you want to change, select the base shape whose size is to be applied to the (target) shape, right-click the base shape and select Resize. Constructs/shapes are re-sized based upon the selected option. For details on selection options, refer to Resize Options in the topic Menu Options in Model Editors. For example, shape A is at the top of the business process model workflow and shape B is just below shape A. Shape A is 80 pixels in size and shape B is 50 pixels. To re-size shape B to the same size as that of shape A, do the following:
    • Hold Shift key and select shape B.
    • Select shape A, right-click on it and select Resize > Make Same Size. Shape B is re-sized to the same size as that of shape A.
  5. On the keyboard, hold Shift key to select required shapes, in the modeling environment right-click and select Distribute. The space between selected shapes is distributed based upon the selected option. For details on selection option, refer to Distribute Options in the topic Menu Options in Model Editors.
  6. Select a shape and use the mouse to move/drag it to required area/direction. The shape is moved to the required area/direction.

    Note:
    Alternatively, hold Shift key and select a shape to move it in required direction one pixel at a time.

  7. On the keyboard, hold Ctrl key and select any two shapes in the modeling environment to connect them in the desired direction. The selected shapes are joined by a connector. For example, to connect from top to bottom first, select the shape on top followed by the shape at the bottom.

    Note:
    All connectors can have description and properties.