Sequence diagram: possible to allow the text of a message extend beyond the arrow?

0 votes
asked Apr 22, 2015 in Wanted features by anonymous
A problem that I have with PlantUML is that the sequence diagrams generated are unnecessarily big, causing text and other features to shrink to unreadable sizes when the diagram is put on a printed page. A reason for the problem is that when there's a long label associated with a message, the arrow is extended to accomodate the text, causing lifelines to be push far apart. I understand that manual line breaks can be used to fold a text label, but they are essentially manual tweaks, and are user-unfriendly. It would be better if the text label of a message is allowed to extend beyond the arrow, without causing lifelines to be pushed apart. Alternatively, and perhaps additionally, an autoamatic text wrap feature can be added to reduce the need for manual line breaks.

1 Answer

+2 votes
answered Apr 22, 2015 by plantuml (294,960 points)

There is an undocumented feature, that allows you to specify the maximum size (in pixel) of a message.

@startuml
skinparam maxMessageSize 100
A->B:very long long long message name
@enduml

This is not widely tested, so feedback is welcome!

commented Nov 12, 2020 by Mike B
Brilliant suggestion.  Has helped me a lot.
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