This paper deals with the automatic dependability analysis of systems designed using UML. An automatic transformations is defined for the generation of models to capture systems dependability attributes, like reliability. The transformation concentrates on structural UML views, available early in the design, to operate at different levels of refinement, and tries to capture only the information relevant for dependability to limit the size (state space) of the models. Due to the modular construction, these models can be refined later as more detailed, relevant information becomes available. Moreover a careful selection of those, critical, parts to be detailed allows to avoid explosion of the size. An implementation of the transformation is in progress and will be integrated in the toolsets available for the ESPRIT LTR HIDE project.