Network View
The network view is a block diagram view emphasizing inter-connectivity of the assembly.
It is one of the three views in the assembly environment, along with the graphics view and the browser view. The network view is the best way to show coincident connections and provides an easy way for checking the number of connections between any two modules, reducing modeling errors.
Entities in the Network View
Organizing the Network View of an Existing Assembly
When invoking the network view for the first time, an auto generated block diagram is displayed, which is not likely satisfying. After some effort in organizing the modules and connections, the block diagram can be organized in an easy to view form. The organized view can then be saved in the assembly .xml file so that the organized view will be available when the .xml file is imported.
- Turn off the visibility connections by unchecking the Visibility checkbox.
- Click the icon to increase the horizontal box size so that the module names are mostly inside of the boxes. Make sure that the entity resize toggle is turned on.
- Make the body box wider. Block the select half of the modules by dragging the left mouse cursor and then move the selected modules up to make room. Click the body's left and right edge and then drag to enlarge the horizontal size.
- Arrange the modules connected to the body above and below the box first and then sequentially arrange the remaining modules based on their connectivity.
- Re-check the Visibility checkbox to turn on the connectors.
- Click the icon to reset the connection locations to Auto Generated Positions.
- Rearrange and expand the collapsed connections until the view is satisfactory.
Entity Sizing Control
Module and connections can be selected to be moved by left-clicking the object. To move a tagpoint, left-click the small circle while holding down Ctrl.
When moving modules, attached connections can be set to either move with the modules by clicking the icon to on, or stay at their current positions by clicking the icon to off. When moving either modules or connections, connection lines can be set to maintain a perpendicular relationship to module boxes by clicking the icon to on.
Interrogating Module and Connection Definitions
Create/Delete Modules and Connections
Modules can be created or deleted by using the context menu.
At this point, connection creation/deletion can only be done from the connection creation GUI and the Connector browser. The alignment of both module and connection can be accomplished from the same context menu.
Pan/Zoom/Fit All
- Dynamic zoom
- Can be done by clicking Ctrl and scrolling the middle mouse button.
- Window zoom
- Can be done by clicking Ctrl and drawing a window while holding the middle mouse button.
- Fixed zoom
- Can be done using the icons shown below.
Fit All can be done by clicking the icon.
Coloring Capabilities
- Control Volume
- Highlights the modules belonging to a particular control volume and connections inside and on boundary of control volume.
- Not in Analysis
- Highlights the modules that are not defined for a particular analysis.