Documentation on how to use Lay_D, Lay_U etc

[ppoluha]

I often find it hard to get the layout I want and I see in your examples that you use "layout commands", such as Lay_D and Lay_U. Could you please add a few lines in the documentation on how to use these and how to think about how to order the elements (ie should I use Rel_R or Lay_R, for example).

[adrianvlupu]

Rel_R actually adds a relationship arrow between the elements and serves the same purpose of a normal Rel but tells plantUML that the arrow should be pointing right -RIGHT->>.

The Lay_R is mostly for rare circumstances when you want to arrange the Containers in a specific order but don't want to add an actual relationship between them ($from -[hidden]R- $to).

There is a mention of these now in the readme file.

[kirchsth]

Rel_* is used if the elements has a relation, Lay_* is used if you want a specific layout of the elements:

In following sample a person uses different systems, and group of persons which have no relations

@startuml
!include https://raw.githubusercontent.com/plantuml-stdlib/C4-PlantUML/master/C4_Container.puml
HIDE_STEREOTYPE()

Person(a, "A")
Person(b, "B")
Person(c, "C")
Person(d, "D")
Person(e, "E")

Lay_U(a, b)
Lay_R(a, c)
Lay_D(a, d)
Lay_L(a, e)

Person(x, "X")
System(s1, "S1")
System(s2, "S2")
System(s3, "S3")
System(s4, "S4")

Rel_U(x, s1, "uses")
Rel_R(x, s2, "uses")
Rel_D(x, s3, "uses")
Rel_L(x, s4, "uses")
@enduml

[stale]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had activity in the past 60 days. It will be closed in seven days if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[kirchsth]

@adrianvlupu: I think it can be closed based on my merged sample