Class Diagrams in VS 2017

Solution 1:

Using VS2017 Enterprise:

1. Go to the Quick Launch Bar (top right) Ctrl + Q

2. Type "Class Designer" and an install link will pop up

   

3. Click install, restart, and your off to the races... Enjoy!

Solution 2:

Noticed this in the beta and thought I had a bad install. The UI elements to add new Class Diagrams were missing and I was unable to open existing *.cd Class Diagram files in my solutions. Just upgraded to 2017 and found the problem remains. After some investigation it seems the Class Designer component is no longer installed by default.

Re-running the VS Installer and adding the Class Designer component restores both my ability to open and edit Class Diagrams as well as the UI elements needed to create new ones

Solution 3:

You need to install “Visual Studio extension development” workload and “Class Designer” optional component from the Visual Studio 2017 Installer to get the feature.

See: Visual Studio Community 2017 component directory

But this kind of item is not available on all project types. Just try for yourself:

• In a Console App (.NET Framework) is available;

• In a Console App (.NET Core) is not available.

I couldn't find more info on future availability also for .NET Core projects.

Solution 4:

Woo-hoo! It works with some hack!

According to this comment you need to:

1. Manually edit Microsoft.CSharp.DesignTime.targets located in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\Managed (for VS Community edition, modify path for other editions), append ClassDesigner value to ProjectCapability (right pane):

2. Restart VS.

3. Manually create text file, say MyClasses.cd with following content: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <ClassDiagram MajorVersion="1" MinorVersion="1"> <Font Name="Segoe UI" Size="9" /> </ClassDiagram>

Bingo. Now you may open this file in VS. You will see error message "Object reference not set to an instance of object" once after VS starts, but diagram works.

Checked on VS 2017 Community Edition, v15.3.0 with .NETCore 2.0 app/project:

GitHub issue expected to fix in v15.5