Compare Diagram Visually

You can merge projects with Astah Professional edition. There are two levels of the merge.
1. Easy Merge
2. Detail Merge

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Easy Merge

[Easy Merge] is relatively simple. When there are conflicts between two projects, Astah imports the contents of one project to another.

  1. Open a .asta file.
  2. Go to [File] – [Merge Project…].
  3. Select another .asta file to merge.
  4. Choose which file to prioritize, and click [OK]. Then when there are conflicts, models in the .file you select will overwrite the other.
    Merge box
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Detail Merge

With [Detail Merge], you can choose which to prioritize in the “conflict list” when there are conflicts between two project files.

  1. Go to [File] – [Merge Project…].
  2. Select a file to merge.
  3. Click the [Detail] button to open another window.
    Merge Detail
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Merge Window

Merge Astah Projects

Left pane: Conflict tree

The differences between the working project and the importing project are displayed in the Conflict Tree.

Icon

Description

Compare Green
This indicates that these diagrams/models exist only in the working project.
Compare - red icon
This indicates that these diagram/models exist only in the compared project.
Compare Blue
This indicates that these diagrams/models exist in both projects.

Filter in tree

Since version 8.3, a new filtering option is available.
If you don’t want to see any models with presentation-changes only such as color changes and subtle re-locations in the tree, check (Hide presentation attributes differences). Then the models with presentation-changes only will be removed from the list.
Filtering options at merge


Filter in the list

By checking the [Hide presentation attributes differences], you can remove the models with presentation-changes only such as color changes and subtle re-locations from the list, so that you can see the list of models that were actually modified.
Filtering differences in conflict list in Astah


Show Diagram Difference

You can compare two diagrams visually by clicking the [Show Diagram Difference] button.
Show Diagram Differences in Astah



This pulls out a new window to show two diagrams side by side with conflicted models marked.
You can filter the marks by the type of change such as “Added”, “Deleted” and “Modified”.
Compare Diagram visually


Filtering Option

You can check the “Hide differences in appearance” option to filter out the models with presentation-change only such as color change or subtle re-location.
Hide Changes


Merge Method

Merge Methods can be chosen for each Model selected in the Tree. If multiple Models, whose Merge Method options differ, are selected in the Conflict Tree, all the options are displayed.
Merge Method

(1) Ignore importing Models

If this option is selected, importing models are not included in the merged Project.

(2) Replacing with importing Models

If the importing Project is empty, the merged Models will be deleted. After merging, Models are replaced with those in the merged Project. If the importing project is empty, all Models will be deleted

(3) Merge – Using this option

Elements that exist only in either the working Project or the importing Project are merged. For other Elements, the working Project is prioritized.

(4) Merge – Prefer the Importing Project

Using this option, Elements that exist only in either the working Project or the importing Project are merged. For other Elements, the importing Project is prioritized.

(5) Free Selection for each Element

Using this option, Elements are merged according to the selection in the checkbox [Keep Elements in the Working] in the Conflict List.

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Restrictions

  1. Currently, merging the contents of the following diagrams are not supported:
    Sequence Diagrams, Communication Diagrams, Statemachine Diagrams, Activity Diagrams, Flowcharts, Data Flow Diagrams, CRUDs and Mindmaps.
    So you will have to select either the working Diagram or the importing Diagram to overwrite the other.
  2. Sequence Diagrams, Communication Diagrams, Statemachine Diagrams, Activity Diagrams, Flowcharts, Data Flow Diagrams, CRUDs and Mindmaps are always displayed in the Conflict Dialog even if there are no changes.