Designing Domain Model Question

Question

I'm using Visual Studio 2010 Professional. My domain model consists of approx 100 classes (entities and value objects). To visualize and efficient to work with properly too much to be in 1 diagram. Probably I should split this one diagram in several smaller? Any recommendations here? Or is the class designer not meant for when having a lot of classes (maybe using another design tool)?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Hello GuyD,

Thanks for your post.

As far as I know, in Visual Studio Class Designer, it default provides one class diagram to visualize all the classes which will be more better to understand the project's structure and view the relationships among classes. More information, please check:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ek97fxxe.aspx (Working with Classes and Other Types (Class Designer))

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa288743(v=vs.71).aspx#clssdsgnr_topic3 (Visual Studio 2005 Class Designer)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms379623(VS.80).aspx (Visual Studio 2005 Team System Modeling Strategy and FAQ)

Otherwise, you could also consider Visio tools for designing and creating class diagrams. Below links are the tutorials:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc947873(v=vs.90).aspx (Visual Studio Team System 2008 and Visio FAQ)

http://www.msoffice.us/Visio/Visio%202003%20Data%20and%20Object%20Modeling.pdf

If you have any concerns, please feel free to follow up.

Best regards

---

Liliane Teng [MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us
Get or Request Code Sample from Microsoft
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Answer 2

Hello GuyD,

I am writing to check the status of the issue on your side. Would you mind letting us know the result of the suggestions? If you have any concerns, please feel free to follow up.

Have a nice day.

Best regards

---

Liliane Teng [MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us
Get or Request Code Sample from Microsoft
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help.

Answer 3

Hello Liliane,

Thanks for the answers.

Working with too much classes in the designer is difficult (clutters up the screen). Maybe I should try splitting my class diagram in different sub-class-diagrams.

Regards,
Guy