In the latest update to CaseComplete 2011, we included a few subtle improvements that you might not have noticed. First, there is a change to the way we save package files. Now, when you add a package to your project, it will be saved in its own file by default and you’ll be presented with this:

You could always do this, but the default behavior was to store the package in the same file as its parent. You had to take an extra step to save it in its own file.

We did this since most of our users are now using shared projects as they collaborate with their teammates. The benefit of having each package in its own file is that it can be checked-out independently, allowing team members to work on different parts of the project without getting in each other’s way.

Activity Diagram File Names

The ability to generate activity diagrams automatically from use cases is a popular feature. When you saved the project, however, you were prompted for a diagram file name. That felt a little cumbersome so we tried to improve the usability by generating the file name for you. The file name will start with the name of use case that owns the activity diagram followed by ActivityDiagram. For example, if you were to generate an activity diagram for a use case named Place Local Call, file name would be PlaceLocalCallActivityDiagram.ndx.

Choose Your Actor Shape

When dragging and dropping actors from the Project Browser onto a diagram, you’ll now see a menu of available actor shapes like this:

We’ve had this feature tucked away for awhile, but it wasn’t easy to discover. If you’d rather not see the menu, you can tweak the way this works under the File / Options / Diagrams menu.