C# .NET 2.0 Class Generation from UML Model

[roadsweeper]

Hi

I'd like to find an affordable product that will enable me to generate C# (.NET 2.0) skeletons (i.e. classes with methods, etc.) from a UML model. I know Rational Rose can do this but it's more expensive than I care to think about. Integration with Visual Studio .NET 2005 would be ncie too. Any recommendations?

Cheers.

roadie.

[Plotloss]

Think you're stuck with Rational pretty much.

CA have an offering that will be able to generate C# from a model (not UML though) in the shape of Advantage Plex.

There is a faint bell ringing that maybe Altova have something, not sure though, I've been out of the code generator market for a while now.

[m12_nathan]

Not something I've ever played with but does codesmith help you at all?

[Alex]

Try Visio, I think it comes with Visual Studio these days.

[J_S_G]

Pro edition of Visio should be able to do this. You get all the class designer stuff with the decent releases of VS.NET 2005, too.

[Cuchillo]

Hello,

roadsweeper said:

Hi I'd like to find an affordable product that will enable me to generate C# (.NET 2.0) skeletons (i.e. classes with methods, etc.) from a UML model. I know Rational Rose can do this but it's more expensive than I care to think about. Integration with Visual Studio .NET 2005 would be ncie too. Any recommendations? Cheers. roadie.

As you are using VS 2005 ... have you considered the Team Suite edition ... Specifically the Architect version?

HTH

[slapmatt]

We use Select Component Architect. It's an excellent UML tool, it does everything from Use Cases, Sequence diagrams to Class diagrams and does code generation too.

[polus]

I use rational rose at work. Im not keen at all and I tried the auto generate code funtion (C++).

My god; it generates ugly code which I then have to go through and edit it so I dont bother.

[polus]

Cuchillo said:

Hello, roadsweeper said: Hi I'd like to find an affordable product that will enable me to generate C# (.NET 2.0) skeletons (i.e. classes with methods, etc.) from a UML model. I know Rational Rose can do this but it's more expensive than I care to think about. Integration with Visual Studio .NET 2005 would be ncie too. Any recommendations? Cheers. roadie. As you are using VS 2005 ... have you considered the Team Suite edition ... Specifically the Architect version? HTH

Whats that like? my work will be upgrading after our current project. Although I mainly deal with embedded systems I do surface to develop C++ ATL-COM/WTL dlls/apps every now and again.

[roadsweeper]

First of all, thanks to everyone for their contributions.

I have since realised that, unlike VS 2003, VS .NET 2005 comes with a reasonably well-featured graphical class builder built-in. It's not UML modelling, but it does allow the architect to create a visual representation of the code and then generate the class skeletons from it, including methods, fields, etc. That's enough for us really as I wanted to ensure our latest product has fantastic documentation as it is inherently fiendishly complex and we want new people to be able to join and be productive quickly. Taken with a fully documented database scheme and general documentation we should be OK with this.

Cuchillo said:

As you are using VS 2005 ... have you considered the Team Suite edition ... Specifically the Architect version?

What does the version you suggest offer over and above what I've described above? I believe Team Suite edition allows collaboration between developers, source control and the ability to link tasks with code development but I presume there are other advantages too from what you say?

[NST]

i used to use Together from TogetherSoft (i think its owned by Borland now). it is fantastic product but also very expensive. the cheap alternative is visual paradigm which i've been using for the last few months. definitely recommend it. not sure about vstudio 2005 support, bu tit does integrate with vstudio 2003 very well.

NST

[J_S_G]

roadsweeper said:

First of all, thanks to everyone for their contributions. I have since realised that, unlike VS 2003, VS .NET 2005 comes with a reasonably well-featured graphical class builder built-in. It's not UML modelling, but it does allow the architect to create a visual representation of the code and then generate the class skeletons from it, including methods, fields, etc. That's enough for us really as I wanted to ensure our latest product has fantastic documentation as it is inherently fiendishly complex and we want new people to be able to join and be productive quickly. Taken with a fully documented database scheme and general documentation we should be OK with this. Cuchillo said: As you are using VS 2005 ... have you considered the Team Suite edition ... Specifically the Architect version? What does the version you suggest offer over and above what I've described above? I believe Team Suite edition allows collaboration between developers, source control and the ability to link tasks with code development but I presume there are other advantages too from what you say?

Bear in mind the architect edition loses the code profiling of the Dev edition, and the automated test-scripting of Test edition (admittedly, the scripting's only of Web apps in the current version, but once Vista's around, you can be sure Winforms testing'll be on the list!)

When it comes to documentation/maintenance, I'm a big believer that decent test coverage (either NUnit, or using the built in features in VS 2005) is one of the best ways of not only knowing the state of the system, but letting others know how to work on it.

[J_S_G]

roadsweeper said:

First of all, thanks to everyone for their contributions. I have since realised that, unlike VS 2003, VS .NET 2005 comes with a reasonably well-featured graphical class builder built-in. It's not UML modelling, but it does allow the architect to create a visual representation of the code and then generate the class skeletons from it, including methods, fields, etc. That's enough for us really as I wanted to ensure our latest product has fantastic documentation as it is inherently fiendishly complex and we want new people to be able to join and be productive quickly. Taken with a fully documented database scheme and general documentation we should be OK with this. Cuchillo said: As you are using VS 2005 ... have you considered the Team Suite edition ... Specifically the Architect version? What does the version you suggest offer over and above what I've described above? I believe Team Suite edition allows collaboration between developers, source control and the ability to link tasks with code development but I presume there are other advantages too from what you say?

Bear in mind the architect edition loses the code profiling of the Dev edition, and the automated test-scripting of Test edition (admittedly, the scripting's only of Web apps in the current version, but once Vista's around, you can be sure Winforms testing'll be on the list!)

When it comes to documentation/maintenance, I'm a big believer that decent test coverage (either NUnit, or using the built in features in VS 2005) is one of the best ways of not only knowing the state of the system, but letting others know how to work on it.

[rac504uk]

You can use use DTM (Data Tier Modeller) which integrates with Visio/VS.NET to create classes. I think there is a charge for it. Might be worth a search