I’d like to connect diagrams in Eclipse Capella such that they are more interactive for the casual user - i.e. by only double-clicking on an actor (or clicking and holding a key for example) to be transported to a particular diagram showing the missions involving that actor, or by clicking on a Node PC in a high level Physical Architecture Blank (PAB), to be transported to a detailed PAB with that Node PC as the new focus. If the link cannot be from the object itself, then from a note or constraint perhaps connected to the object? For the life of me and rooting through forum posts, videos and documentation I wasn’t able to find out how to do this. Does anyone know how to do something like this?
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Couple of easy ways to do this:
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Within the semantic browser you can see which diagrams elements are used in. The “All Related Diagrams” section of the Current Element. Double click on the diagram and it will open.
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Create custom hyperlinks to other diagrams using “Representation Links”. In the palatte, use the drop down next to the sticky note you will see the option for Representation Link. Draw where this link is going to be used on the diagram, then select the view to open.
Hope this helps 
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Representation Links sounds like what I was what I’m looking for. Resolved!
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Revisiting this topic; I have had several users now who have wanted to double-click on an object to navigate to a new diagram. In fact this is what users intuitively do when they start using the software, and the behaviour doesn’t match the expectation.
The representation links were suggested, but I find they aren’t very clean, and the option isn’t easy to find if you don’t already know about it. The semantic browser is great for familiar users, but it isn’t the fastest or most intuitive for new users. I am still greatly interested if it’s possible to change the default behaviour, so that double-clicking will not open the Properties window but instead will navigate to a new diagram (or open a particular diagram in a new tab).
For example, with this behaviour, double-clicking a high level function might open a functional dataflow, or double-clicking a high-level Node PC might open a Physical Architecture Blank showing the internal structure.
- Does anyone know with certainty that the behaviour option exists or not?
- Does anyone know if there’s a way to raise a feature request for a future version?
Hi,
I don’t think this behaviour option exist. And as an element may have multiple diagrams, you would have to think what would be the expected behaviour in that case.
About raising a feature request: you can do that on the Capella github repo. Nevertheless, in my opinion, I would say it is unlikely that the Capella team would change the default behaviour when double-clicking. I would say that this would be a specific behaviour that you would have to implement for your deployment/usage.
Stephane
Hi Stephane,
It’s a behaviour that we are familiar with from Enterprise Architect, and it’s a behaviour that people with no prior experience usually expect to happen right out of the box. When trying to convince people of the values of MBSE, I’m getting feedback like “Sounds good! It would be great if we could double-click to zoom into the system.”
At least on the web, good design has predictable behaviour. Now maybe 5 new users with us have expected this behaviour but got different results. Their mental model of the system has this sort of object hierarchy, but the Eclipse Capella model does not support that.
It’s dissappointing that it can’t be toggled in Eclipse Capella; e.g. a global toggle, or an individual properties window toggle, and a place to set the default ‘open on double click’ diagram (or ctrl+click) and a properties field with a place to add a connection or URL for this double-click or an alternative click behaviour. For less experienced users, even with the Semantic Browser, navigation is still a pain.
Yes I agree, I was not saying this is not a good idea And please raise the feature request, the fact that I may think that they may not change this behaviour is just my opinion, and my opinion has no influence on the Capella team decisions.