A Profile is a kind of a package that extends a reference metamodel. The primary extension construct is a stereotype. Stereotypes are defined as a part of profiles.
A profile introduces several constraints or restrictions to ordinary metamodeling. Constraints and restrictions are realized using metaclasses defined in the package. It is a restricted form of a metamodel that always must be related to a reference metamodel, such as UML, as it is described below. It cannot be used without its reference metamodel, and it defines a limited capability to extend metaclasses of the reference metamodel. The extensions are defined as stereotypes that apply to the existing metaclasses.
Each profile contains a set of stereotypes. Profiles are defined as separate modules. Profiles are loaded on demand, that is when you start or open your project only profiles used in that project are loaded.
Profiles are defined using the UML extensibility mechanisms that allow modelers to customize UML for specific domains, for example, for software development processes. The mechanism of the profile is similar to the functionality of modules.
The program comes with some predefined profiles: UML Standard Profile, DDL, EDOC, and other. All profiles are stored in <modeling tool installation directory>\profiles.
Profile Properties
The profile is defined as a package, that is, it has package properties.
You can specify profile properties in the profile's Specification window. You can also find descriptions of each property in this window. Descriptions are provided in the description area below the property list.
Creating Profiles
You can create a profile in one of the following ways: