FactXpress Benefits

All drawing tools ask some investment from the user to get familiar with the semantics of the shapes, the way the diagram is automatically laid-out and the way the user can influence the standard behavior. Once the user is familiar with these aspects the following benefits are reported:

faster creation of a diagram

The Diagram Helper is used to drag and drop shapes on the Canvas, or on top of an existing shape on the Canvas. FactXpress automatically creates an association between two terms when a term-box is dropped on top of another term-box. There is no need to draw lines anymore; lines are automatically positioned saving the time and extra action to draw lines manually.

better support for positioning boxes

FactXpress has knowledge of the semantics of the boxes and will use this knowledge to position new term boxes. This results in a balanced tree lay-out for categorization or composition hierarchies without the need for the user to line-up boxes in the diagram.

consistent notation over multiple diagrams

FactXpress only allows drawing boxes that have a meaning in conceptual models. The user is not able to draw other things resulting in a consistent notation across multiple diagrams.

easy navigation between multiple diagrams

When diagrams contain more information it is recommended to create multiple diagrams that cover one aspect of the complete structured vocabulary. One such diagram is then called a ‘neighborhood’ in RuleXpress terminology. Since this may result in one term being used on multiple diagrams it becomes important to navigate easily between diagrams. FactXpress allows for a text based search in multiple diagrams and shows all diagrams that use a selected term in one mouse-click.