Showing Multiple Transition Sources or Targets

A Transition may have multiple sources, meaning it is a join from several concurrent states, or it may have multiple targets, meaning it is a fork to several concurrent States.

You can show multiple transitions with either a vertical or horizontal orientation in your state and activity diagrams. Both the state and activity diagram toolbar provide separate horizontal and vertical fork/join buttons for each orientation. The two orientations are semantically identical.

To create multiple transitions:

  1. Identify the states involved. If necessary, place all of the states on the diagram first, and lay them out as desired.


  2. Place either a horizontal or vertical fork/join on the diagram. Resize as needed.


  3. If depicting multiple sources, draw transitions from each of the source states to the fork/join.


  4. If depicting multiple targets, draw a transition from the source state to the fork/join; next, draw transitions from the fork/join to each of the target states.