How to: Create System Diagrams 

You can begin designing application systems using System Designer by creating a system diagram from selected application definitions in your solution. Each system diagram represents a single system definition. For more information about application systems, see Overview of Application Systems on System Diagrams.

Note

The solution must first contain an application diagram that defines the applications that you want to add to the system definition. For more information, see How to: Add Application Diagrams to Solutions.

To create a system diagram from the application diagram, use the following procedure. To add a blank or existing system diagram to the solution, see How to: Add System Diagrams to Solutions.

To create a system diagram from selected applications

  1. On the application diagram, select the applications you want or select everything on the diagram.

  2. On the Diagram menu, choose Design Application System.

  3. In the Design Application System dialog box, name the system.

    System Designer displays a system diagram with the selected applications and any connections that exist between them. In Solution Explorer, the diagram appears with an .sd extension in the Solution Items folder. The document tab at the top of the diagram displays the diagram name and an abbreviation ([SD]) representing the designer.

    Tip

    You can also right-click the application diagram without any applications selected and choose Design Application System to add everything on the diagram to the system.

To continue designing the system, you can add or remove uses of applications, add other systems, edit or define communication pathways, override settings, or define deployment for the system. For more information, see the following topics:

See Also

Tasks

Walkthrough: Designing Application Systems

Other Resources

Common Tasks Across Distributed System Designers
Designing Application Systems with System Designer