Submodeling
Submodeling is a hierarchical way of organizing information
supported
by object references called hierarchical links.
Hierarchical modeling can serve many purposes (logical/physical,
transformation,
interface design, version management, etc.). Submodeling is available
for data models only.
It is recommended to use sub-modeling only when the submodel's content
of semantic
information is different from the super-model. When the semantic
information
is the same but a different "view" of the information is required, a
diagram should
be used.
Creating
a sub-data model
The submodels feature is tightly integrated with the copy and paste
operation so that
it is very easy to add a new submodel. Simply add a new data model in
an existing
one, select the desired objects in the supermodel and paste them in the
sub model.
The objects’ hierarchical links are automatically created.
Objects
hierarchically linked
There are three ways to create hierarchical links:
- When pasting an object from the super-model to the submodel,
hierarchical
links are automatically created.
- When integrating a super-model and a submodel, association of
objects
between models will create hierarchical links.
- When editing an object's properties, you have access to its
super-object;
you can edit this object and select any other available super-object,
if it
has the same type and does not already have a sub-object in the same
data model.
Graphic
diagram options
Prefixes on table/view/column concepts can display the super/sub
model’s hierarchical
links.

Graphical representation of submodels
Graphical representations of submodels enable you to
visualize the overview of a group of models, or simply to display the
submodels of your Data Model in
a diagram. In the example below, we have
separated the areas of a system into submodels. These submodels may
then be associated to different target systems. As an example, The
Customer Data Model could model a physical database to be implemented
on Oracle, while the InternalProcess Data Model could model
a critical database to be implemented Microsoft SQL
Server and deployed on a high availability platform
such as a Windows Cluster.
