Limitations and Workarounds for Sequence Diagrams in Visual Studio 2010

Here are some limitations and workarounds I came across while evaluating sequence diagrams in Visual Studio 2010:

• You can’t hide the reply part of a synchronous message. A work around is to remove the label and color the reply arrow transparent. But you won’t get rid of the execution block.
• You need to have a message to add a combined fragment, even when your fragment doesn’t require one. One example of this could be a Break fragment. The workaround is to add a dummy message to be able to add the combined fragment and then remove the message again.
• You can’t resize fragments or interaction operands. For example, if you remove some messages from a combined fragment, you will end up with a large fragment that you can’t resize. A workaround to regain diagram space in those situations is to right-click a blank part of the diagram, and then click Rearrange Layout (you can undo this operation if needed!).
• You can’t reorder fragments or interaction operands. I haven’t found a work around for this.
• You can’t copy/paste fragments. A workaround is to copy/paste the messages within the fragment and then recreate the fragment around them. That’s of course only thinkable for very simple fragments.
• You can’t rewire messages to other lifelines. A workaround for rewiring the start lifeline is to copy the message and paste it in the other starting lifeline. Then remove the original message. I haven’t found a workaround for rewiring the destination lifeline of a message.