The ability to visualize all code elements through diagrams, instead of looking at potentially thousands of lines of code, is an important productivity-enhancer. Code Generation One of the most basic benefits delivered by a UML tool is its ability to automatically generate code. Code generation capabilities quickly create source files, base files with headers, inner classes, operations and attributes. The amount of time typically saved by automating these tasks is quite significant, and can offer the Developer dramatic improvements in productivity. It is important to recognize a significant difference in the way current UML tools generate code.
Some tools generate markers, or tags, when code is generated.
These comments are automatically inserted to help identify items that are modified, but can also dramatically increase the size of an application and the difficulty working within the code going forward. Other tools, such as Embarcadero's GDPro, do not use code markers. Round Trip Engineering Round trip engineering lets you efficiently and incrementally develop software, regardless of whether you start from a new design or from existing code. To be effective, round trip engineering must keep models and code truly synchronized. The value in keeping models and code synchronized cannot be overstated.