distances between actors in sequence diagrams / Note positions

Question

Hello, I would like to ask a question about sequence diagrams

For example, I have 6 actors, but I would like to group them visually in groups of 2 and I would like to put a note to each group - is there a possibility to do this?

I have a code like this:

@startuml
Actor A1
Actor A2
Actor A3
Actor A4
Actor A5
Actor A6

note over A1,A2 : common Role over A1 and A2
note over A3,A4 : common Role over A3 and A4
note over A5,A6 : common Role over A5 and A6
@enduml
 

The result is, that the 6 actors are all in the same distance and the notes reach over more than the 2 given actors.

What I get is:

A1   A2   A3   A4   A5   A6

 note 1

           note 2

                    note 3

 

I would like to have the notes on the same level - and a bigger distance between A2-A3 and A4-A5

A1   A2        A3   A4         A5   A6

note 1   note 2   note 3

Is there a possibility to handle this?

 

Thanks much in advance for your answer.

Best regards

Answer 1

Hello,

Not possible yet, but we have done something close:

http://plantuml.sourceforge.net/qa/?qa=354/sequence-diagram-possibly-multiple-hnotes-vertical-level

(which is working)

We will see if we can extends this to meet your need.

Regards,

Answer 2

In version 7978, we have implemented thsi:

@startuml
Actor A1
Actor A2
Actor A3
Actor A4
Actor A5
Actor A6

note over A1,A2 : common Role over A1 and A2
/ note over A3,A4 : common Role over A3 and A4
/ note over A5,A6 : common Role over A5 and A6
@enduml

 

Comments

almost...
unfortunately I have different sizes of the notes over the actors. So something strange happens:
I used the following code:
"
@startuml
Actor A1
Actor A2
Actor A3
Actor A4
Actor A5
Actor A6

note over A1,A2 : common Role over A1 and A2
/ note over A3,A4 : common Role over A3 and A4 with much much more text and a little difference to others
/ note over A5,A6 : common Role over A5 and A6
@enduml
~
"
and then the distance between actor 4 and 5 ist too small I think - or ... hmmm maybe the distance between 2 and 3 shold be half as big, but the half should be added to the distance between 4 and 5?
Thanks in advance for your help.

Höri

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Thanks for the report.
This has been partially solved in the following beta https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/13064071/plantuml.jar

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Thanks much - looks much better!