Custom theming for Cameo/MagicDraw

Problem statement

Cameo/MagicDraw on Linux operating system does not look nearly as professional as in Windows. This is due fact that Cameo/Magicdraw uses the standard look and feel which is not visually appealing and the fonts are very small, especially on a smaller (14-inch) screen.

Solution

I created a plugin enabling users to use the wonderful open source FlatLAF look and feel theme (https://www.formdev.com/flatlaf/).

Demo

Download release

You can directly download the release without build from the following address:

https://github.com/modeldriven-hu/lookandfeel/releases/tag/1.0.0

Build the project

Requirements

• Cameo/MagicDraw latest
• Java JDK 11
• Maven

Check out the repository

git clone https://github.com/modeldriven-hu/lookandfeel.git

Configure environment variable

Configure Cameo/MagicDraw root directory according to local setup, for example:

set CAMEO_ROOT=C:/home/Tools/Cameo

or when using PowerShell:

$env:CAMEO_ROOT = "C:/Home/Tools/Cameo"

or under Linux:

'export CAMEO_ROOT=/home/zsolt/tools/cameo'

Building

Execute mvn clean package in the git folder

Installation

Extract into Cameo plugins folder

Extract target/hu.modeldriven.lookandfeel.zip into CAMEO_ROOT/plugins

Modify the classpath

Although Cameo is able to load our plugin at startup but it seems to have some issues with the dependent FlatLaf library. The solution for the problem right now is to add the library to the classpath of Cameo directly.

In CAMEO_ROOT/lib folder there is a file called classpath.jar. This is a standard zip file.

Modify classpath.jar by hand

• Extract the file META-INF/MANIFEST.MF to some location. This file contains the list of dependencies.
• Add the text flatlaf-2.5.jar to the end of the file right after y.jar
• Save the file and copy it back to the jar file

Replace classpath.jar

An alternative solution is to simply replace the existing classpath.jar file with the file from the release. Just download the file from https://github.com/modeldriven-hu/lookandfeel/releases/download/1.0.0/classpath.jar and overwrite the existing classpath.jar with the downloaded one.

Add flatlaf-2.5.jar to lib

You need also to add flatlaf-2.5.jar to the CAMEO_ROOT/lib folder. The jar file is located in hu.modeldriven.lookandfeel.zip which you either downloaded from the website our built yourself.

• Copy flatlaf-2.5.jar file into CAMEO_ROOT/lib folder

Restart

In order to use the plugin you need to restart Cameo.

Usage

In the Options menu select Flat look and feel then select the desired theme and press Apply.