Annotating Model with Freehand Shape

When modeling projects, we sometimes use Callout Shape to perform Annotation for reminding our team members. Besides usage of words, Freehand Shape can help annotating models. We can draw shapes and paths to visually divide the diagrams into different sectors, or to organize the shapes in the diagrams, etc.

With the support of Freehand Shape in annotating models, the diagrams will be more understandable without word description. It increases the clearance of the organization of the diagrams as well.

Moreover, Freehand Shapes can be edited easily and can be used in all types of diagrams.

Belows we will demonstrate how Freehand Shapes work in diagrams.

1. Here is a Component Diagram. We can use Freehand Shape to group the Components.
   
   
   
2. Click Line on the toolbar.
   
   
   
3. Drag on the diagram to draw a line to indicate the separation of the layers.
   
   
   

Besides drawing Line, other Freehand Shapes help annotating models. We will use Rectangle as an example.

1. Click Rectangle on the toolbar.
   
   
   
2. Drag on the diagram to create a specific size of the shape.
   
   
   
3. The shape created will be on the top, covering the Components of the diagram, so we have to make it to the back.
4. Right-click on the shape.
   
   
   
5. Select Order in the popup menu.
   
   
   
6. Select Send to the Back.
   
   
   
7. Now the Components are grouped visually by the Rectangle.
   
   
   

There are 4 kinds of Freehand Shapes. Line, sometimes drawn as a path, can be edited easily by moving the control points. Polygon can be reshaped to form a specific shape we want. Oval and Rectangle shape can be resized freely.

To edited Line :

1. When a Line is created, we can see a yellow square on the Line.
   
   
   
2. Drag the yellow square to achieve a specific appearance of the path.
   
   
   

To edited a Polygon :

1. When a Polygon is created, we can see several yellow squares on its sides.
   
   
   
2. Drag the yellow square(s) to form a desired shape of polygon.
   
   
   

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