Plantuml - Rearrangement of components and packages

Question

I try to arrange the components and packages as shown on the first screenshot. Is there any chance to do it like this (Screenshot 1)

Please find my current approach here (Screenshot 2)

And uml script here:

@startuml
package "packageA" {
  [componentA]
}

package "packageB" {
  [componentB1] - [componentB2]
  [componentB2]
}

package "packageC" {
  [componentC1] - [componentC2]
  [componentC2]
}

package "packageD" {
  [componentD]
}



componentA --> componentB1
componentA --> componentC1
componentB2 -right-> [componentD]
componentC2 -right-> [componentD]

@enduml

Illegalize

Answer 1

With the left to right orientation, and leaving out the explicit orientation in the package, you can get roughly what you want:

@startuml
left to right direction

skinparam package {
    backgroundColor Gray
}
skinparam component {
    backgroundColor Gold
}

package "packageA" {
  [componentA]
}
package "packageB" {
  [componentB1] -- [componentB2]
}
package "packageC" {
  [componentC1] -- [componentC2]
}
package "packageD" {
  [componentD]
}

componentA --> componentB1
componentA --> componentC1
componentB2 --> [componentD]
componentC2 --> [componentD]
@enduml

The vertical alignment it not easy to control. I believe the problem comes from the link between components whereas there are probably some attempt to align the packages.

An alignment from top to bottom gives better centering in this regard. What can also help in some cases is to add also some -[hidden]-> links which seem to be taken into account in alignment/centering as well, but in this rather flat situation it doesn't change much.

Demo

Histamine

Thanks Christophe :) That solves 99% of my question – Illegalize