Be sure to visit the Trace Modeler website for updates and UML sequence diagram resources!
The 'Export settings' window allows you to tweak the image that is created when you export a diagram to a graphics file.
The various settings are discussed below.
To open the 'Export settings' window :
The settings discussed below influence the characteristics of the exported graphics file.
Select the desired file format for the generated graphics file. The following formats are supported
This setting is only relevant when the JPEG file format is chosen and signifies the quality versus file size trade-off.
A higher quality value results in a larger file.
Keep in mind that this file format is lossy and will generate visible compression artifacts in the bitmap file when a lower quality is chosen. It is recommended to always use the 'Best' quality setting.
Scale the generated bitmap to a custom percentage.
This should normally be set to 100%.
The only reason to use a different value is when you have very specific size requirements for the generated image. The memory requirements for exporting a diagram increase with larger scales.
The resolution of the generated image in dots per inch (72, 150 or 300).
The resolution should match your output medium.
For on-screen display or a web page a resolution of 72 dpi should be ok. If you want to print your images on a laser printer, 72 dpi produces a pixelized (i.e. blocky) result. So for any kind of print media, a resolution of 150 dpi or 300 dpi is recommended. The memory requirements for exporting a diagram increase with a higher resolution.
Exporting to a grayscale bitmap will reduce the memory requirements for exporting a diagram and produce smaller bitmap files.
The information areas allow you to judge the size of the resulting image, and give you an idea about the memory requirements.
Here you can see the dimensions of the image that will be produced by exporting the diagram.
The dimensions are affected by the contents of the diagram (of course) and the value for the Scale setting above.
You can change the unit in which the dimensions are shown (mm, cm, inches or pixels). The exact dimensions are only relevant if you have specific size requirements for a diagram. If you don't, export at a scale of 100%.
Here you can see how much memory Trace Modeler needs to execute the export operation. You can also see how much memory is available and the total memory Trace Modeler can access.
Note that the available memory is an estimate so you'll need a couple of MB's more than what is required.
You can reduce the memory requirements for exporting the diagram (make it smaller by putting elements closer together, use a smaller scale, lower the resolution, use grayscale), but a better solution is to increase the memory available to Trace Modeler once and for all.