# Special Objects

## Special Objects Introduction

The previous discussion explained what a basic object is. The next section goes a step further and teaches how to create objects, how to use pre-made objects which are more detailed than just shapes, and much more!

## Special Object Categories

Special objects are broken into different categories or sheets. This way, someone creating a diagram of a circuit board is shown only the objects which apply to them. Dia supports numerous pre-defined categories.

Assorted

  Assorted Geometric Shapes. The purpose of this sheet is to provide a selection of simple and convenient preset shapes so that users need not create spend time creating their own basic shapes. The set includes shapes with constrained ratio such as perfect Circles, Squares, various type of Triangle and Crosses.

Chemical Engineering

  A collection of shapes for modelling the process of Chemical Engineering.

Chronogram

  Uses objects to be used in a chronographic design. These are common place in time lines.

Circuit

  A group for people interested in creating diagrams of electrical circuits.

Civil

  Civil Engineering components.

Cybernetics

  Shapes for creating diagrams of Cybernetic Circuits.

Cisco

  Cisco includes shapes representing equipment from Cisco a manufacturer of Computer Networking Equipement.

Ladder

  Components for Ladder Circuits.

ER

  Editor for Entity Relations (ER) Diagrams. Entity Relationship diagrams are used to represent high level descriptions of conceptual models in terms of how each data entity relates to other data in the model. They are most commonly used to model the structure of data to be stored in a database.

Function Structure, FS.

  Editor for Function Structure (FS) Diagrams. Note that the Objects require the use of the context menu to access much of the funtionality of these objects.

Flowchart

  A group dedicated to providing the user shapes which are commonly used in flow charts. Flow charts can be routinely found in computer programming, marketing, economics, and any other semi-linear operation which requires planning.

GRAFCET

  A chart which shows the step, the action, the transition, and the condition associated with the transition. GRAFCET is a Sequential Function Chart created in 1975. The name comes from graph because the model had a graphic basis, and from AFCET (Association française de cybernétique économique et technique) the scientific association which supported the work.

Istar

  Istar is agent-oriented modelling framework. Istar is also written as i*.

Jackson

  Jackson Software Design (JSD) method Diagrams.

KAOS

  KAOS Diagrams.

Map 3D Isometric

  Pseudo 3D isometic shapes for creating Directional Maps. Microsoft Visio calls these shapes Map, Directional Map 3D.

Misc.

  Miscellaneous shapes that do not fit into any of the other groups. Includes some Filesystem shapes and an animated clock object that updates in real time.

MSE

  Mobile Subscriber Equipment Components, as used by the United States Army.

Network

  Used by network administrators to create a design of their network.

Electric

  Shows flow of electricity.

Pneumatic/Hydraulic

  Allows diagraming of a device which employes hydraulics.

SADT

  Structured Analysis Design Technique.

SDL

  Specification and Description Language (SDL) SDL is used to describe the behaviour of interactive time based systems. SDL was originally focused on telecommunication systems, but has also come to be used to describe process control and real-time applications in general.

Sybase

  Designs diagrams display the flow of a Sybase computer network.

UML

  Unified Modelling Language (UML). UML is a modelling and specification language commonly used to create diagrams showing the structure of object-oriented computer programming code, particularly for large scale projects.