Generating a graphical class and reference diagram from code ?

Question

Hi there does anyone one know of a way to generate a rough graphical diagram of an already existing C# project ? Anything built-into VS2005 maybe or some external tools ? Thanks Eike

Jan Montano · Answer

That's strange... I used EA 4 months ago and I was using a System consisting of 100+ classes. And it didn't take that long. it only took minutes. And my box was only P4 3.0ghz 1gbram. I just can't remember the selection I used. But I didn't set anything unusual though. I have no EA installed on right now. I think there's something wrong.

Eike Mueller · Answer

Thanks but it seems the VS visualization function doesn't show the associations between classes. Most importantly I am looking for something that analyzes the instances of the classes and draws the connections between the classes. I tried Enterprise Architect as well but that got stuck with one CPU core at 100% load since about 6 hours while trying to generate the layout. I keep it running till tomorrow maybe it just takes a while and finishes after all. What menu option do you use to import c# projects in the EA ? Maybe I did it wrong somehow. Unfortunately I do not have any version of Visio ;(

Jan Montano · Answer

Hi You could use the class designer in VS2005. Just right-click your project then select View Class Diagram For external tools you could look at Enterprise Architect by sparx systems http://www.sparxsystems.com.au/ Visio can also be integrated with .NET I just can't remember what version (enterprise?) you need to have for it. I'm trying Visio 2003 but can't find the option to reverse engineer .NET code.