Resizing UML Activity shapes

[Colin]

I am having difficulties resizing UML Activity shapes.

E.G. Having placed a state shape in a swim lane and then
entered its name (which is too long for it to remain in
the swim lane) I need to resize it such that it remains
within the boundaries of the swim lane.

I have tried removing the width and height protection
from the shape and this does give me the usual resize
grab handles on the shape as you would expect but when I
attempt to resize the unlocked shape it shimply gets
dragged as a complete shape across the page!

I have also tried to directly amend the shapes height and
width settings in the shape dimensions pop up box but the
width and height simply revert back to the original size.

Can any body help???

 

[Colin]

I may have found a solution to this problem so for all of
you others out there -----

I have found one way of performing this, but it is rather
long winded.

if you select <tools><options><advanced> from the toolbar
and then check the 'run in developer mode' check box, you
can gain some access to the shapes attributes and
formulae.

You will then need to edit the shapes master and do the
following:
1. Select each of the layers that make up the shape in
turn and for each layer right click and select <show
shapesheet> This will display an excel like spreadsheet
window.

2. The attributes that I changed are as follows:

In the table headed 'Shape Transform' remove the 'GUARD'
from the width and height cell. This can be done by
double clicking on the cell and then deleting the text.
When done make sure you press <enter> on your keyboard
before clicking on the next cell (you will see why if you
dont do it). You will also need to remove the 'GUARD' in
the cells PinX, PinY, LocPinX, LocPinY. Finally make sure
that the resize mode cell is set to 2.

These should be the only cells that you have to amend.

Once you have done this for all of the layers that make
up the shape, close the edit master window and say yes to
the popup dialogue box.

You should now be able to drag the shape onto the page
and change its size (note you may have to unprotect the
shape in the usual manner, before resizing).

I arrived at this solution by trial and error and it does
seem to work, but you may have to do some fiddling of
your own to get the shape to respond in the manner that
you want it to.

One more thing, the template will not be altered until
you come out of edit mode when you will be asked to save
the changes that you have made. I guess as a precaution
you should make a backup copy of the template file just
in case.

Hope all this makes sense

regards

Colin.