Microsoft Visio is the tool we use to draw our designs. This is the first time I want to draw a synchonous message in a sequence diagram and it’s a hell of a job when you don’t know how. Here is a list of steps to create my simple sample (download)

1. new UMl Model Diagram
2. Static structure -> add Class from Shapes
3. Static structure -> add Signal from Shapes
4. Static structure -> add Actor from Shapes
5. Class -> add Reception
6. new Sequence Diagram
7. Sequence -> add Object lifeline from Shapes (set Classifier to Actor of 4)
8. Sequence -> add Object lifeline from Shapes (set Classifier to Class of 2)
9. Sequence -> add Message (async.) between Object lifelines (defaults to Signal of 3)