Creating a Statechart Diagram

You can create statechart diagrams on most model elements except for attributes, associations, or model elements that appear in the component view.

To create a statechart diagram:

1 In the browser, right-click any model element except for attributes, associations, or model elements that appear in the component view.

2 Click New > Statechart Diagram.

Another way to create a statechart diagram:

1 Click the Browse State Machine Diagram button from the toolbar.

2 Click New.

3 Select the Statechart Diagram check box in the New State Machine dialog box.

4 Enter the statechart diagram title.

5 Click OK.

Automatic Transmission Example

Figure 49 Automatic Transmission Example

Figure 49 illustrates some of the major model elements in a statechart diagram:

• Decisions
• Synchronizations
• States
• Transitions
• Start states
• End states

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Activity Diagram Overview

Activity diagrams provide a way to model the workflow of a business process. You can also use activity diagrams to model code-specific information, such as a class operation. Activity diagrams are very similar to a flowchart because you can model a workflow from activity to activity. An activity diagram is basically a special case of a state machine in which most of the states are activities and most of the transitions are implicitly triggered by completion of the actions in the source activities. The main difference between activity diagrams and statecharts is activity diagrams are activity centric, while statecharts are state centric. An activity diagram is typically used for modeling the sequence of activities in a process; whereas, a statechart is better suited to model the discrete stages of an object's lifetime.