Launching the editor

To launch the Use Case Editor, simply double click its icon on the desktop, or select it from the start menu or from its Windows 8 tile. If you cannot find its tile, on the Windows 8 tiles screen type UCEditor and the appropriate tile should appear for selection.

When the editor starts up, it attempts to reload the previous model you were working on. Hence you will see in the applicaton window that there will be a tree of model elements appearing down the left side of the user interface.

Changing the model path and name

If no model was being edited previously, the editor will launch with a new empty model called newmodel.xml. The path to this new model file will be displayed in the title bar of the application. To change the model name and folder, simply select File | Save As ... from the main menu, and save the model to a new folder location with a new name. Note that the model file must have a .xml extension when saved as a stand-alone model in this way.

Main window layout

The editor when launched without a prior model will look as follows:

All the model editing functions are available through the main menu drop-downs. For convenience, each of the most frequently used editing functions are available through the toolbar buttons beneath the main menu as well. To find out what each of these toolbar buttons correspond to on the main menu, just hover over them for a tooltip to appear. Editing options not available to you at a particular moment in time are grayed out. As you navigate and add items to the model these additional options will become enabled or grayed as they become valid or invalid for the currently selected location in the model.

Beneath the toolbar, to the left of the main window is a tree view that contains the structure of the requirements model. Initially in an empty model this contains the sections shown in the picture above. The sections are described below.

The panel to the right of the tree view changes its contents depending on which element in the tree view to the left has been selected. For example, the form that appears on the right hand side is different when editing a use case selected in the tree view, from the form that appears when editing the details of an actor.

Leaving the editor

To quit the editor either select File | Exit from the main menu, or just click on the window close icon at the right of the title bar. If there are outstanding unsaved changes in the model you have been editing, a dialog will appear, telling you of this fact. You will have the opton of returning to the editor, or quitting the editor, losing any unsaved changes.

To create a new standalone model, select File | New from the main menu. If there are any unsaved changes on the current model open in the editor, you will be asked if you want to save those changes first.

If you select 'Yes', you will be presented with a dialog so that you can select the location and filename for the model to be saved. By default this will be preset to the folder and filename for the model already being edited.

If you select 'No', your model changes will be abandoned, and a new empty model will be created in the use case editor. Its name will be set to newmodel.xml in the currently selected model folder.

To open an existing standalone model, select File | Open ... from the main menu. If you have unsaved changes in your existing model you will be prompted to ask you if you want to save those changes first.

If you select 'Yes', you will be presented with a dialog so that you can select the location and filename for the previous model to be saved. By default this will be preset to the folder and filename for the model already being edited.

If you select 'No', your previous model changes will be abandoned.

After this, another dialog will appear inviting you to select the model file you wish to open. Navigate your folders until you find the previous standalone model file to be opened for editing. This file must end with a .xml extension to be a standalone model.

Click 'Open' on the dialog box, and the model will be loaded.

To save your current model that you have been editing, select File | Save to save it back into the same file location as it was opened from. This will overwrite the earlier version of the model irrecoverably.

Alternatively you can save the model to a different file or folder by selecting File | Save As ... and navigating to a new folder and filename in the dialog that appears. Note that if you do this, the new name and folder selected will become the default save location used by subsequent File | Save menu selections.