Copy & paste diagram elements between two projects - possible?

General Questions/Discussions
1

Hi!

My company is looking for an UML & ERD design tool and we are very interested in Visual Paradigm’s software. We are using the trial version of VP for UML 6.4 right now, to be sure that it is the best choice for us.

However, today I have faced a problem - is it possible to copy/duplicate a part of UML/ERD diagram to another project (as an editable diagram, NOT as an image)? I need to copy a huge part of an ERD from one project to another, because they are quite similar, but I can’t (or I just don’t know how to) do it… I have two VPs opened, working in other workspaces. Copying it as a XML results in pasting plain text. Copying “within VP” works only for the same VP instance.

Is there something else I can do, to do it? Did I miss something? I guess it has to be some way to do it, because (I think) it is a really useful feature, but… who knows? Maybe I’m the only one who needs it? :wink:

Best regards,
Michał

2

Hi Michał,

Thanks for your post. You can select the models you need to copy and select Edit > Copy > Within VP (Ctrl+C), then create a new project or open an existing project, right-click on the diagram and select Paste Model in the popup menu.

Please be reminded that copying models and paste to another project required to be done in the same instance of VP.

Best regards,
Lilian Wong

3

Hi Lilian,

Thank you for the answer. So, as I understand (I can’t check it at the moment), I have to OPEN the ‘source’ project, copy some models, then CLOSE project, OPEN another project and paste these models into it? Hmm… I haven’t tried it this way, because I was hoping it can be done without switching between projects. It’s not really the way I was expecting it to work, but… it’s better that it works this way, than if it’s not working at all :wink: Thanks once again!

Best regards,
Michał

4

Hi Michał,

Thanks for replying. I would like to take this chance to share with you that we just released VP Suite 4.0 yesterday, and we support referencing model element in external projects.

With this feature, you will not need to keep opening project for copy-and-paste of models, you can simple reference to the models in other project file and perform modeling base on the referenced model element.

You can get details about referencing model element from external project in the following link:
http://resources.visual-paradigm.com/index.php/visual-modeling/67-vm-general/347-project-ref.html

Best regards,
Lilian Wong