SysML Plugin TWRT Documentation
When modeling deeply nested structures, you can display nested properties within a system hierarchy in the SysML Internal Block Diagram and SysML Parametric Diagram. You can represent nested properties by displaying the property shape inside another property shape. For example, on the left side of the figure below, the wheel, brake, and caliper are nested parts represented as nested Part Property shapes. Representing deeply nested properties in this manner requires a lot of space in the diagram.
Alternatively, you can represent nested properties by using dot notation, which expresses a structural hierarchy compactly in the form of a text string. Dot notation references a nested property accessible through a sequence of intermediate properties from a referencing context. The name of the referenced property is built by a string of names separated by “.”, resulting in a path name that identifies the property in its local context. This notation is purely a notational shorthand for a property that could otherwise be shown within a structure of nested property shapes. For example, on the right side of the figure below, the nested parts are represented using dot notation with the higher-level part names (vehicle, wheel, and brake).
The meaning of both of them is the same: caliper is a part of brake which is a part of wheel; wheel is a part of vehicle.
Additional information
The representation of nested properties with dot notation form is used on Lifelines and in Instance Table column headers.
When working with nested properties, manage them as follows:
The dot notation separates the property names. However, there are many situations when properties are unnamed (see the right side of the figure below).
If you use an earlier version than 18.5, you must set the option which shows type names in a property path with dot notation. For a new project, this option is enabled by default.
To show type names in the property path
For example, after enabling the Show Type Names in Nested Path option, the part with dot notation, on the right side of the figure, provides information about nested part types.
You can convert nested properties from the system structure to dot notation form.
To convert nested properties to dot notation form
You can convert a property shape displayed with dot notation form to a nested properties structure.
To convert properties with dot notation form to a nested properties structure
You can move a property shape with dot notation from the diagram back to the compartments of a nested property.
To move a property with dot notation to the compartments of a nested property
Related pages
Sample model
The model used in the figures of this page is the Car Braking Analysis sample model. Download CarBrakingAnalysis.mdzip.