hi guys,,,
I first learned programming back in the days of BASIC on the Apple II. When TurboPascal arrived, it got me very excited about IDE's. I later had a chance to work with two Smalltalk environments and UNIX and emacs. I've always been interested in how some tools can be so much better than others. I have also enjoyed doing rapid prototyping and experimental programming.

I came to grad school with the intention of building a better software development environment with an emphasis on the human aspects. What makes some languages and IDE's more productive for people than others? I initially set out to build a tool that would help software designers experiment with alternative designs quickly.

At that time, all of the names of research projects in my research group at UC Irvine were taken from Greek Mythology. I borrowed a book on mythology and tried to find a tale of experimentation. The story of Jason and the Argonauts seemed like a good match because my name was Jason and exploration was close to experimentation as I could find. In that myth, "Argo" is the name of the ship that they sailed.

The name "Argo" refers to the library of cognitive support features I implemented (e.g., design critics, checklists, navigational perspectives, etc.). I have also used it as the product line name for some of the applications of that library. The Argo/UML tool is actually the fourth in a series of tools I worked on that have cognitive support features provided by the Argo library. Argo/UML is by far the largest application of the Argo library.

I later learned more about the "Argo" myth and found an interesting coincidence. The ship "Argo" was made from wood cut from a magical talking tree. The beams of wood on the ship continued to talk and warned the Argonauts of upcoming danger. You could say that these were design critics!

This is an update of [Tips] Save as Image.

astah* enables you to save diagrams as image such as PNG, JPEG, EMF and SVG format files.
- EMF/SVG export is supported in astah* professional and UML editions only
- SVG export is available since version 6.1

*diagram image* (Click to enlarge)








To export diagrams to image files, go to [Tool] - [Export Image] and then select the format and also decide if you want to export only one diagram you are currently working on or plural diagrams. All export works just by clicking the option from this Pop-up menu, however if you want SVG, there is something you have to get it done on ahead. (Read the step below)
















What you have to do before saving diagrams as SVG

1. Close astah*
2. Download "Batik SVG Toolkit" from here
3. Create a new folder under astah* install folder¥lib and name it as "batik"
4. Unzip the batik.zip file you downloaded at step2 in astah* install folder¥lib¥batik
5. Run astah*

Now you are able to save your diagrams as SVG format file.

Cheers,
Satomi