Model Textually, View Graphically: Automatic Class Diagram Visualization with Bidirectional Navigation and LSP Support

UML Class Diagrams, at varying levels of detail, have been established at different stages of software development. Research indicates that textual DSL integrate more efficiently into toolchains and are therefore better suited for the overall software development cycle than visual notations. Nevertheless, visual notation remains valuable due to its widespread recognition among software engineers and its ability to facilitate the identification of transitive relationships. CD4C is a text-based DSL variant for CDs, developed with MontiCore, and used in both university teaching and practical MDSE.

This paper introduces a tool that automatically generates graphical representations from textual CDs. The tool is available in two variants. (1) As a CLI tool, it can be integrated into a range of toolchains. (2) With IDE support, it offers a layout that preserves users’ mental map and provides a continuously synchronized automatic graphical view during textual modeling. By supporting the LSP, the tool provides standard language features such as syntax highlighting and enables bidirectional navigation between graphical and textual representations.