Dear camunda-Support-Team,
I am using Camunda Modeler frequently and enjoy using it. Great work! Now a project requires modeling vertical pools. I did not found any function that would allow me to do so. Does camunda modeler support vertical pools? If yes, how can I draw a vertical pool. Thanks a lot for your answer!
kind regards, Nadine
modeling vertical pools is not something we support, but it was discussed a little while ago:
The current situation is that we don’t plan on doing it but we’re open to someone creating a pull request for this feature.
Out of interest - what is the reason for this requirement?
Costumer requires modeling vertical pools. Our costumer is german public administration. Maybe you have already heard of so-called FIM (Federal Information Management) “method”. For modeling processes of public administration with FIM “method” BPMN was extended to fit the special needs of german administration. Many people will soon start using this method and model processes. As I know there are only commercial products that support the special FIM BPMN and corresponding rules as vertical modeling. Maybe FIM BPMN is a possible path for further development.
I do not have coding skills, but I think vertical pool are maybe not so difficult to implement or there might even exist some workaround already. After importing models from other tools with vertical pools camunda modeler shows them as vertical (without error). So the modeler can interpret some of the XML in a way to show a vertical pool. I wonder whether there is some attribut that I might add to XML to have the same effect with “native” camunda models. I am not very familiar with BPMN XML. Do you see such a workaround?
Hi @nadwue,
Can you share one of those models from other tools that you imported to see what their structure is and how they are displayed in the Camunda Modeler?
Regards
Michael
Hi Michael,
thanks for your prompt answer. Unfortunately I was wrong. The models only seemed to be displayed with vertical pools :-/ So there is no quick workaround, hmmm… Do you know the reason for not supporting vertical pools? Is this not part of BPMN standard or were there simply not such requirements and camunda focus on other things?
kind regards
Hi @nadwue,
the official BPMN Standard says the following:
A Pool is a square-cornered rectangle that MUST be drawn with a solid single line (see Figure 9.2). The label for the Pool MAY be placed in any location and direction within the Pool, but MUST be separated from the contents of the Pool by a single line.
A Lane is a sub-partition within a Process (often within a Pool) and will extend the entire length of the Process level, either vertically (see Figure 10.122) or horizontally (see Figure 10.123).
So to answer your question: Yes, modelling vertical processes is part of the standard. Processes can be modelled in whatever direction you prefer.
But for the readers of a process it is in general the most natural feeling if they can read the process from left to right (like reading a text).
I am not involved in the process of developing the Camunda Modeler but i highly guess that the reason to only model horizontal processes is because this is the easiest way to read a process and thus the most used UseCase.
Unfortunately I have to say that extending the Modeler with the funcionality for vertical processes is indeed a little bit of work and can not be done with editing a few xml-elements.
Hope that clarifies this topic a little more.
Regards
Michael
After using BPMN/Cawemo for 4-5 years, I find the one of the limitation for drawing BPMN with Cawemo is horizontal drawing. You will always find that vertical swim lanes is useful for pasting the process into a Docs (Google Docs or MS Word). Because with a Docs you have to scroll vertically to read it, you will go through a vertical process and the details supporting the process afterwards. If using horizontal swim lanes, your process will almost always be very small relatively to the words surrounding it due to the size and the surplus spacing.
I would also appreciate this feature for the same reasaon. Large diagrams are then better to be viewed when pasted to the customer documentation.