In activity diagrams, you
can align the partitions and subpartitions vertically or horizontally,
or disable the alignment and use them as freeform shapes. By default,
the partitions and subpartitions are aligned vertically.
Before you begin
An activity diagram must be open
in the
Modeling Perspective.
Procedure
To change the alignment of the partitions, complete one
of the following steps:- To align the partitions horizontally, right-click in the activity
frame; then click Horizontal alignment.
- To align the partitions vertically, right-click in the activity
frame; then click Vertical alignment.
- To enable freeform partitions, right-click in the activity
frame; then click Freeform alignment.
The alignment setting applies to new partitions and subpartitions
that you add to the model.
Results
The following table contains two figures that illustrate the
arrangement of two partitions, and the corresponding nodes and activity
edges, when you align them vertically and horizontally. In each figure,
an activity frame, called Activity1, contains two partitions. One
partition, called Partition1, contains an action, called OpaqueAction,
that is connected to a decision. The second partition, called Partition2,
contains OpaqueAction2 and OpaqueAction3, which represent two possible
results of the decision. In the first column the partitions are arranged
vertically; in the second column they are arranged horizontally.
| Vertical alignment of partitions |
Horizontal alignment of partitions |
 |
 |
You can see an example of freeform partitions in
the Example of an activity diagram topic.
Tip: You
can also change the flow of the nodes and activity edges within each
partition or subpartition. To display the flow within the partition
vertically, right-click the shape compartment of the partition; click Vertical
flow to add the check mark. To display flow horizontally,
right-click the shape compartment; then click Vertical
flow to remove the check mark.