Contextual relationships provide the ability to define the specific context that relationships are used in. Before you can create contextual relationships in your project, you must enable their creation in the Project Options dialog.

There are five types of relationships you can contextualize: Allocate, Refine, Satisfy, Trace, and Verify.  


To enable the creation of contextual relationships 


  1. Click Options > Project
  2. Under General, click SysML
  3. Select Creation of Contextual Relationships.
  4. Choose Fully Enabled, Partially Enabled, or Disabled from the drop-down menu on the right.

Fully Enabled

  • Create Contextual Relationships using the Create Relation dialog.
  • Add a new Contextual Relations category to the Dependency Criteria dialog.

Contextual Relations can only be created in dependency matrices with the specified Structure-tree view.

  • Contextualize relationships while creating them on the diagram pane.
  • Contextualize relationships created by drag-and-dropping elements directly from the Structure tab.
  • Contextualize/decontextualize relationships using a smart manipulator toolbar.
Partially EnabledIncludes the same features as the Fully Enabled option (see above), excluding the ability to contextualize relationships using the diagram palette.
DisabledCompletely disable the creation of Contextual Relationships.


Contextual Relationships Options