This menu provides a range of functions to help in the alignment of model elements on diagrams within the editing pane. In general the menu function invoked is applied to any model element or model elements currently selected in the editing pane.
This sub-menu aligns the selected items. There are seven alignment options provided.
Align Tops. Aligns the selected model elements by their top edges.
Align Bottoms. Aligns the selected model elements by their bottom edges.
Align Rights(Shortcut Ctrl-R). Aligns the selected model elements by their right edges.
Align Lefts(Shortcut Ctrl-L). Aligns the selected model elements by their left edges.
Align Horizontal Centers. Aligns the selected model elements so their horizontal centers are in a vertical line.
Align Vertical Centers. Aligns the selected model elements so their vertical centers are in a horizontal line.
Align To Grid. Aligns the selected model elements so their top and right edges are on the grid snap boundary (see Section 10.5.5, “ Adjust Snap ” ) edge.![[Tip]](images/tip.png)
Tip The alignment is to the current grid snap setting, which may be smaller, larger or the same as the displayed grid. Since items are aligned to the grid snap boundary any way when you place them, this menu entry has no effect unless you have either changed the grid snap to a larger value or used one of the other
Arrangemenu entries to push items off their initial positions.
This sub-menu distributes the selected items. There are four distribution options provided.
Distribute Horizontal Spacing. The leftmost and rightmost selected model elements are not moved. The others are adjusted horizontally until the horizontal space (i.e. from the right edge of the left model element to the left edge of the right model element) is the same for all of the selected items
Distribute Horizontal Centers. The leftmost and rightmost selected model elements are not moved. The others are adjusted horizontally until the distance between the horizontal centers of all the selected items is the same.
Distribute Vertical Spacing. The top and bottom selected model elements are not moved. The others are adjusted vertically until the vertical space (i.e. from the bottom edge of the top model element to the top edge of the bottom model element) is the same for all of the selected items
Distribute Vertical Centers. The top and bottom selected model elements are not moved. The others are adjusted vertically until the distance between the vertical centers of all the selected items is the same.
This sub-menu adjusts the ordering of overlapping items. There are four reorder options provided.
Forward. The selected model elements are moved one step forward in the ordering hierarchy with respect to other model elements they overlap.
Backward. The selected model elements are moved one step back in the ordering hierarchy with respect to other model elements they overlap.
To Front. The selected model elements are moved to the front of any other model elements they overlap.
To Back. The selected model elements are moved to the back of any other model elements they overlap.
This menu-item acts on all selected items on the current diagram. It resets all sizes of all model elements to its minimum size for which all text fits inside.
This menu-item provides an automatic diagram layout function, i.e. when activating this menu-item, all items on the current class diagram are rearranged according a certain layout algorithm.
This function currently only works for classdiagrams. For all other types of diagrams, the menu-item does not do anything .