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1 <chapter label="5" id="special-objects-chapter">
2 <title>Special Objects</title>
3 <sect1 id="special-objects">
4 <title>Special Objects Introduction</title>
5 <para>
6 The previous discussion explained what a basic object is. The next section
7 goes a step further and teaches how to create objects, how to use pre-made
8 objects which are more detailed than just shapes, and much more!
9 </para>
10 </sect1>
11 <sect1 id="special-object-categories">
12 <title>Special Object Categories</title>
13 <para>
14 Special objects are broken into different categories or sheets.
15 This way, someone creating a diagram of a circuit board is shown
16 only the objects which apply to them.
17 <application>Dia</application> supports numerous
18 pre-defined categories.
20 <!-- Please try to keep the list Alphabetically sorted. -->
22 <variablelist>
23 <varlistentry>
24 <term>Assorted</term>
25 <listitem>
26 <para>
27 Assorted Geometric Shapes. The purpose of this sheet is to
28 provide a selection of simple and convenient preset shapes so
29 that users need not create spend time creating their own basic
30 shapes. The set includes shapes with constrained ratio such as
31 perfect Circles, Squares, various type of Triangle and Crosses.
32 </para>
33 </listitem>
34 </varlistentry>
35 <varlistentry>
36 <term>Chemical Engineering</term>
37 <listitem>
38 <para>
39 A collection of shapes for modelling the process of Chemical
40 Engineering.
41 </para>
42 </listitem>
43 </varlistentry>
44 <varlistentry>
45 <term>Chronogram</term>
46 <listitem>
47 <para>
48 Uses objects to be used in a chronographic design.
49 These are common place in time lines.
50 </para>
51 </listitem>
52 </varlistentry>
53 <varlistentry>
54 <term>Circuit</term>
55 <listitem>
56 <para>
57 A group for people interested in creating diagrams of electrical
58 circuits.
59 </para>
60 </listitem>
61 </varlistentry>
62 <varlistentry>
63 <term>Civil</term>
64 <listitem>
65 <para>
66 Civil Engineering components.
67 </para>
68 </listitem>
69 </varlistentry>
70 <varlistentry>
71 <term>Cybernetics</term>
72 <listitem>
73 <para>
74 Shapes for creating diagrams of Cybernetic Circuits.
75 </para>
76 </listitem>
77 </varlistentry>
78 <varlistentry>
79 <term>Cisco</term>
80 <listitem>
81 <para>
82 Cisco includes shapes representing equipment from Cisco a
83 manufacturer of Computer Networking Equipement.
84 </para>
85 </listitem>
86 </varlistentry>
87 <!-- TODO fully describe all four of the Cisco Sheets -->
88 <varlistentry>
89 <term>PLC Ladder</term>
90 <listitem>
91 <para>
92 PLC 'Ladder' graphical programming (electrical
93 controls in manufacturing automation).
94 </para>
95 </listitem>
96 </varlistentry>
97 <varlistentry>
98 <term>ER</term>
99 <listitem>
100 <para>
101 Editor for Entity Relations (ER) Diagrams.
102 Entity Relationship diagrams are used to represent high level
103 descriptions of conceptual models in terms of how each data
104 entity relates to other data in the model.
105 They are most commonly used to model the structure of data to
106 be stored in a database.
107 </para>
108 </listitem>
109 </varlistentry>
110 <varlistentry>
111 <term>Function Structure, FS. </term>
112 <listitem>
113 <para>
114 Editor for Function Structure (FS) Diagrams.
115 Note that the Objects require the use of the
116 <interface>context menu</interface>
117 to access much of the funtionality of these objects.
118 <!-- TODO this needs to be explained much more clearly
119 that it is the middle click context menu, unless the
120 main menubar is turned on for each document window
121 but this will be enough of a warning for now. -->
122 </para>
123 </listitem>
124 </varlistentry>
125 <varlistentry>
126 <term>Flowchart</term>
127 <listitem>
128 <para>
129 A group dedicated to providing the user shapes which are
130 commonly used in flow charts. Flow charts can be routinely
131 found in computer programming, marketing, economics, and any
132 other semi-linear operation which requires planning.
133 </para>
134 </listitem>
135 </varlistentry>
136 <varlistentry>
137 <term>GRAFCET</term>
138 <listitem>
139 <para>
140 Grafcet (or IEC 61131-3 SFC) diagrams. Used in graphical
141 programming and documenting sequential processes in
142 manufacturing automation.
143 </para>
144 <para>
145 A chart shows the step, the action, the transition, and
146 the condition associated with the transition.
147 </para>
148 </listitem>
149 </varlistentry>
150 <varlistentry>
151 <term>Istar</term>
152 <listitem>
153 <para>
154 Istar is agent-oriented modelling framework.
155 Istar is also written as i*.
156 </para>
157 </listitem>
158 </varlistentry>
159 <varlistentry>
160 <term>Jackson</term>
161 <listitem>
162 <para>
163 Jackson Software Design (JSD) method Diagrams.
164 </para>
165 </listitem>
166 </varlistentry>
167 <varlistentry>
168 <term>KAOS</term>
169 <listitem>
170 <para>
171 KAOS Diagrams.
172 <!-- provide a help description that is actually helpful! -->
173 </para>
174 </listitem>
175 </varlistentry>
177 <varlistentry>
178 <term>Map 3D Isometric</term>
179 <listitem>
180 <para>
181 Pseudo 3D isometic shapes for creating Directional Maps.
182 Microsoft Visio calls these shapes Map, Directional Map 3D.
183 </para>
184 </listitem>
185 </varlistentry>
186 <varlistentry>
187 <term>Misc. </term>
188 <listitem>
189 <para>
190 Miscellaneous shapes that do not fit into any of the other
191 groups. Includes some Filesystem shapes and an animated clock
192 object that updates in real time.
193 </para>
194 </listitem>
195 </varlistentry>
196 <varlistentry>
197 <term>MSE</term>
198 <listitem>
199 <para>
200 Mobile Subscriber Equipment Components,
201 as used by the United States Army.
202 </para>
203 </listitem>
204 </varlistentry>
205 <varlistentry>
206 <term>Network</term>
207 <listitem>
208 <para>
209 Used by network administrators to create a design of their
210 network.
211 </para>
212 </listitem>
213 </varlistentry>
214 <varlistentry>
215 <term>DIN Electric</term>
216 <listitem>
217 <para>
218 DIN style electrical control schematics (electrical controls
219 in manufacturing automation).
220 </para>
221 </listitem>
222 </varlistentry>
223 <varlistentry>
224 <term>Pneumatic/Hydraulic</term>
225 <listitem>
226 <para>
227 Allows diagraming of a device which employes hydraulics.
228 </para>
229 </listitem>
230 </varlistentry>
231 <varlistentry>
232 <term>SADT</term>
233 <listitem>
234 <para>
235 Structured Analysis Design Technique.
236 </para>
237 </listitem>
238 </varlistentry>
239 <varlistentry>
240 <term>SDL</term>
241 <listitem>
242 <para>
243 Specification and Description Language (SDL)
244 SDL is used to describe the behaviour of interactive
245 time based systems.
246 SDL was originally focused on telecommunication systems, but
247 has also come to be used to describe process control and
248 real-time applications in general.
249 </para>
250 </listitem>
251 </varlistentry>
252 </variablelist>
253 <variablelist>
254 <varlistentry>
255 <term>Sybase</term>
256 <listitem>
257 <para>
258 Designs diagrams display the flow of a Sybase computer
259 network.
260 </para>
261 </listitem>
262 </varlistentry>
263 <varlistentry>
264 <term>UML</term>
265 <listitem>
266 <para>
267 Unified Modelling Language (UML).
268 UML is a modelling and specification language commonly used to
269 create diagrams showing the structure of object-oriented
270 computer programming code, particularly for large scale
271 projects.
272 </para>
273 </listitem>
274 </varlistentry>
275 </variablelist>
276 </para>
277 </sect1>
278 </chapter>