Creating and Removing References to Elements

Almost any number of elements can be grouped using references.

Essential Reference Properties

All elements that do not have an direct existence prerequisites in other elements can be referenced.
Packages and components can reference elements as reference containers.
Each element can be referenced by multiple reference containers.
Each reference container can contain multiple references to different elements.
An element can only be referenced once within a reference container.
Modifications made to an element marked as a reference always affect the element itself, which means that all other references to this element are also automatically modified.

Notation

The referenced elements are shown in the model structure below the reference container. The element's icon has a little arrow in the bottom left corner to show it is referenced.

No other contents is shown below the referenced element. This content is only shown for the actual occurrence of the element.

Creating a Reference

Prerequisites

References can only be made to elements that do not have an direct existence prerequisites in other elements can be referenced.

Configure the elements and reference containers being viewed so that references are permitted for them.

How to proceed

Select an element in the model structure.
Select Create Reference in the context menu.

A dialog box for selecting permissible reference containers appears.
Select a reference container and close the dialog box with OK.

A reference is created for the selected element in the selected reference container.

Removing a Reference

How to proceed

Select the reference for an element.
Select the Delete from Model (Shift+Del) menu item.

A dialog with confirmation prompt appears.

Attention:
The dialog asks whether you want to remove the selected reference.

If there is more than one element to be deleted in the list, click on Cancel. This selects the element itself rather than the reference.
Close the dialog with Yes.

The selected reference is removed.

The element itself is retained.

Editing an Element's Referenced Containers

How to proceed

Select an element.
Select the Referencing Container property in the Properties tool window and click .

A selection dialog appears. All permissible referencing containers are shown on the left and all which are already referenced on the right.
Use the arrow in the middle to move the containers from one side to the other.
Close the dialog with OK.

A reference is created for the selected element in the selected container. If a reference was already assigned to the element, it is not lost. If there were references in other containers to those selected, the references are removed.

Editing a Container's Referenced Elements

How to proceed

Select a container.
Select the Referenced Elements property in the Properties tool window and click .

A selection dialog appears. All permissible referenced elements are shown on the left and all which are already referenced on the right.
Use the arrow in the middle to move the elements from one side to the other.
Close the dialog with OK.

References are created in the container for all selected elements. If the container already has references to the selected elements, these are not lost. If the container already has references to elements which are not selected, these are removed.