Generate C# source from UML class diagram in SDE for Visual Studio

You can perform round-trip engineering in SDE for Visual Studio, to keep C# source code and class model in sync. In this tutorial, we will see how to create a class model in SDE for Visual Studio, and eventually generating source code from model.

February 23, 2010
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Create a C# library project Map Viewer in Visual Studio.
Right click on the project node in Solution Explorer, and select Open SDE-VS from the popup menu.
SDE-VS is started. In Diagram Navigator (of SDE), right click on class diagram and select New Class Diagram from the popup menu.
A new diagram is created. You are asked to enter a package header on top of the diagram. Enter myapp and press Enter.
Click on the down arrow button near the shape selection Class in diagram toolbar, and select Interface.
Click on the diagram to create an interface class and name it as IMap.
Create operations in IMap. Right click on the class IMap and select Add > Operation from the popup menu.
Enter JumpToLocation(x : int, y : int) : void to create a public operation JumpToLocation with parameter x, y and return void.
Press Enter to create another operation, Name it Clear() : void. Click on diagram to confirm editing.
We need to create a class for town map which inherits IMap. Move the mouse pointer over interface IMap, press on the resource icon Realication -> Class and drag downwards to create a new class.
Name the class as TownMap and press Enter to confirm.
As the TownMap class is implementing the interface IMap, we need to implement the operations defined in IMap. Right click on class TownMap and select Related Elements > Realize all Interfaces from the popup menu.
You can see that operations JumpToLocation and Clear are both inherited.
It is time to add properties to class. Right click on class TownMap and select Add > Property from the popup menu.
Enter name : string to name the property as name, and set the type as string.
Press Enter to proceed to the next property. Enter x : double as property name and type.
Again, press Enter and create property y : double.
We need to create a new class Region with association from class TownMap. Move the mouse pointer to the class TownMap. Press on the resource icon Aggregation -> Class.
Drag to the right of the class TownMap and release the mouse button. Name the new class Region.
Follow the previous steps to create properties in class Region.

Class Properties

Region name : string

desc : string

x : double

y : double
Up to now, the diagram should look like:
Select File > Save SDE-VS Project from the main menu to save.
Now comes the code generation. Select the menu Update Code on Diagram Navigator.
Check the Solution Explorer. You should see a list of generated file. You can open them to fill in the code body.
This is the end of the tutorial. Instead of closing Visual Studio now, you may try something more by editing the code like to add, rename or delete class, properties and operations, and select Update UML Model from Diagram Navigator, and observe the changes that will make in the class model. Enjoy!