AutoFOCUS 3

AutoFOCUS 3

AutoFOCUS 3 - Release Notes

New Features and Changes in AutoFOCUS 2.24

Model Metrics and Quality

  • Completely new mechanism to calculate, collect and display metrics for models.
  • There are warnings displayed for quality issues in names used in the data dictionary.

SysML Export

  • New export feature from AF3 to SysML models for Papyrus, MagicDraw or Enterprise Architect.

Design Space Exploration

  • Added functionality to edit DSE projects in the DSE perspective (e.g. delete constraints, objectives and rule sets).
  • Improved and simplified the user interface in the DSE perspective to ease usage, especially for new users.
  • Added a feasibility check for manual deployments from Tasks to Execution Units.

Reuse

  • Improved representation of reusable elements in the graphical user interface.
  • Improved handling of library elements for correctness checks.

Variability

  • New Product-line Analysis feature has been added to the Component Architecture to check for variability related model issues.
  • Tooltips were added to the Feature Model editor to make editing more intuitive.
  • New refactoring between alternative and compositional features to ease the editing and maintenance of Feature Models.
  • New checks for Feature Names to prevent problematic feature names.

General

  • Support for comments in Code Specifications to improve documentation.
  • New z3 version is used for design space exploration and product-line analysis to improve performance and stability.
  • More functionalities can be triggered via context menus in diagram editors that were previously only available in the Navigator view.
  • Several quality of live improvements to the graphical user interface.

 

FAQ - Installation and Running

  • On MacOS
    • You need to accept unknown developer certificates.
    • You need to move AutoFOCUS3 to your application folder.
    • If you get an error message on startup which says that AutoFOCUS3 is broken and cannot be started: open a terminal and use the following command:
      • sudo xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine /Applications/AutoFOCUS3.app
      • As our software is a scientific prototype, our product is not signed which causes a problem due to the security restrictions of MacOS
  • On Windows: DSE does not execute and throws exception
    • If you encounter the following exception when running a DSE you might be missing required libraries:
      java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: [...]\plugins\com.microsoft.z3_2.20.[...]\lib\x64\msvcp120.dll: Can't find dependent libraries
      Installing the Visual C++ Redistributable Packages for Visual Studio 2013 fixes the problem.
  • AF3 does not start
    • Check, that the path to your AF3 (including the AF3 folder itself) does not contain spaces.
    • If the product does not start because the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) could not be created: Please update your Java installation to Java 11.0.7
  • Unpacking of AF3 zip file fails with 'Path too long' on Windows
    • Workaround: Unzip into your drive root, e.g., C:/ and give the folder a short name like 'af3'
  • Menu icons are not displayed on KDE
    • Go to "System settings - Application Style - GNOME Application Style".
    • Select "Show symbols of GTK buttons".
    • Select "Show symbols in GTK menus".

 

Detailed list of changes in 2.24:

  • Bug: Property section for FeatureModel is not correctly initialized (#4329)
  • Product-line Analysis: Remove deprecated old analysis (#4328)
  • Enable Product Line Analysis to run in background without blocking the constraint checker (#4309)
  • Feature Model: Add tooltip to editor (#4288)
  • Feature Model: Only one FeatureModel can be opened at a time (#4285)
  • FeatureModel: Add a check for unique feature names (#4278)
  • Check FeatureNames not to be empty (#4257)
  • Variability: Add product-line analysis to tooling kernel (#4240)
  • Add product-line analysis for logical architecture (#4146)
  • Add refactoring CompositionalFeature <-> AlternativeFeature (#4256)
  • Variant Configuration: Selection of "None" Alternative for AlternativeFeatures causes an Exception (#4272)
  • Improve translation of models to SMT for product-line analysis (#4315)
  • Update Z3 to version 4.12.2 (#4172)
  • Add missing .settings files/repo in reuse plugins (#4325)
  • Marker View: Add automatic line break for explanation (#4283)
  • LWFXEF: Disable Background Grid by Default (#4319)
  • Allow comments in code segments (#4299)
  • Diagram Editors: Display context menu entries from the ContextMenuService (#4290)
  • SysML Exporter (#4223)
  • Integration of SysML Exporter Plugins into AF3 git (#4316)
  • Setting up Metric extraction Plugin (#4310)
  • Create a mechanism to enable sorting the prototypes (categories) in model elements view aside of the standard lexicographical one (#4221)
  • Fix bad display of element choices in the in-editor context menu ("New ..." selection) (#4323)
  • [Reuse] Broken data dictionary references clutter the Marker View (#4324)
  • LWFXEF: Hide the Editor's Context Menu after Opening the Re-Use Dialog (#4321)
  • Enable deleting constraints, objectives, rulesets (#4322)
  • DSE Perspective: Enable Scheduling Synthesis only in Expert Mode (#4320)
  • DSE Perspective: UNSAT cores are highlighted only after another DSE is triggered (#4317)
  • Implement a feasibility check for task-to-hardware allocation tables (#4314)
  • Enable editing DSE projects in the DSE navigator (#3797)
  • Avoid ConcurrentModificationException in MarkerService::UIJob (#4339)
  • Avoid erroneous function/constant naming convention warnings (#4340)
  • Change samplingTime Parameter used for FMU Generation into uppercase version to handle the new naming convention warning for it (#4341)
  • Adding new platform architecture elements for to be used within the reuse library (#4345)
  • Remove PresenceConditions before storing an element in a library (#4344)
  • Minor technical issues in AF3 help (#4343)
  • Investigate the crash of the DSE visualization (#4351)
  • Hardware Optimization: Meaningful Attributes & ECU and Task Lists (#4041)
  • Update the routes of a platform architecture on creation of the DSE model snapshot (#4353)
  • Categories in the Model Elements Navigator shall be collapsed by default (#4352)
  • Remove references to DataDictionary before storing an element in a library (#4346)
  • Variability: Constraints are not checked in variant configuration dialog (#4348)
  • PlatformArchitecture editor freezes (#4349)