Previous research has shown that X3D (www.web3d.org) is mature enough for modelling large software systems using UML notation. Although the visualisation was possible it was not considered (or designed to be) something that might be of benefit to a software engineer.

The next phase of researching 3D UML is to determine if there are visualisations which may be of benefit and then testing those visualisations through X3D and an integration with an UML tool.

The first visualisation to be tested will be the concept of a 3D state diagram. The 3rd dimension will be used to layout substates, to allow the presentation of a complete state diagram within a single view. The tool that it will be tested through will IBM Rational Rose RealTime, as this makes extensive use of state diagrams.

The first step in determining benefit will to survey the problem by gathering statistics on state levels used in existing Rose RealTime models. The zip file below contains a ebs script for walking through a Rose RealTime model and generating the statistics. The instructions on use are contained in the statelevels_readme.pdf.

For those that want to participate the process should take only a few minutes. Please download the zip file and run the script as per the instructions. Then forward the results to the email address provided in the statelevels_readme.pdf.

20060511_statelevels.zip

Visualization: X3D-UML: enabling advanced UML visualisation through X3D
Paul McIntosh, Margaret Hamilton, Ron van Schyndel
March 2005 Proceedings of the tenth international conference on 3D Web technology

Full text available: pdf(426.96 KB) p135-mcintosh.pdf

Abstract: The Unified Modelling Language (UML) has become a commercially accepted standard for visualising software systems. Much of this success can be attributed to the computer aided software engineering (CASE) tools, which enable the UML to be effectively integrated into the software development life cycle. The UML is designed to be tool independent, however, in practice it would not be possible to manage the complexities of developing a large software system with "pencil and paper" UML diagrams. The ...

Keywords: JavaML, Software Visualization, UML, Unified Modeling Language, VRML, Virtual Reality Modeling Language, Web3D, X3D, X3D-UML, XML, 3D UML

Off to Europe for two months (blog here)

X3D-UML paper is avaliable below:

X3D-UML

Back soon :)

Below are links to the examples presented at the Web3D Symposium 2005

X3D-UML - FirstApplet.java



X3D-UML - Visualisation of Java3D Source Code



To get it to work, the following needs to be done:

1) Install BS Contact 6.2
BS Contact VRML/X3D 6.2

2) Set BS Contact Options as follows:

- Set BS Contact to use textures for text so that large amounts of text can be displayed (Right Click > Settings > Preferences... Performance Options + enable "Use textures for text")



- Set BS Contact to not check DTD's so that incorrect validation errors are not generated (though there will still be some). Using regedit add the following keys

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Bitmanagement Software\bsContact]
"XML.validate"="0"
"XML.resolveExternals"="0"

or use this registry file


You should now be able to view the UML in 3D. Feel free to contact me regarding these examples, I am especially interested in things that are incorrect or if these examples work with other browsers on other systems (email: Paul.McIntosh at internetscooter.com).

1st paper on X3D-UML was accepted to the 10th International Conference on 3D Web Technology.

Web3D Symposium 2005 - School of Informatics, University of Wales, Bangor, UK

X3D-UML: Enabling Advanced UML Visualisation Through X3D
Authors: Paul McIntosh, Margaret Hamilton, and Ron van Schyndel