Configure diagram views

SysML v2 diagram views let you define which elements to include in a diagram and how to render them, with additional diagram customisation through configurable attributes.

Views work in both Modeler and Modeler CLI.

package MyViews {
    private import Views::asTreeDiagram;

    part def SystemViews {
        view customDroneView {
            expose DroneMission::Structure::Quadcopter;
            filter @ SysML::PartUsage;

            attribute depth = 2;
            render asTreeDiagram;
        }
    }
}

This view exposes the Quadcopter element and filters its contents to show only elements which have metadata of type SysML::PartUsage. The view also contains attribute depth, which tells Syside how deep to traverse each subtree, and render asTreeDiagram which tells Syside which rendering style to use. This page covers the view kind and the configurable attributes in detail. For expose and filter, which decide which elements reach the diagram at all, see Select what a diagram shows.

Choosing the view kind

The SysML v2 specification defines eight standard view definitions, available through the standard library package StandardViewDefinitions. Typing a view by one of them selects the kind of diagram it produces:

package MyDiagrams {
    private import StandardViewDefinitions::*;

    view partWiring : InterconnectionView {
        expose MySystem::powertrain::**;
    }
    view chargingStates : StateTransitionView {
        expose MySystem::modes::**;
    }
}

Syside supports the following kinds as diagrams (see SysML v2 diagram coverage for examples):

View definition	View kind
GeneralView	General (structure, containment, and relationships)
InterconnectionView	Interconnection (parts wired through ports)
ActionFlowView	Action flow (actions and control flow)
StateTransitionView	State transition (states and transitions)
SequenceView	Sequence (lifelines and messages)

Note

An untyped or unrecognized view renders as a General view. As an alternative to typing, a render asInterconnectionDiagram; statement selects the interconnection kind.

Configurable attributes

The following attributes control how each view renders.

Attribute	Default	Since	Description
depth	-1	0.10.0	How many levels of descendants to show. -1 for infinite depth. See depth explained for more details.
render	Nested Diagram	0.10.0	Layout style. Use render Views::asTreeDiagram for tree layout. Omit for nested. See render explained for more details.
fileType	svg	0.10.0	Output format: svg, png, or jpeg (jpg is accepted as an alias).
fileName	diagram-${self.name}	0.10.0	Output file name.
zoomLevel	3.0	0.10.0	Zoom level for rendering. Applicable only to PNG and JPEG output.
exposeMode	subtree	0.10.0	How the view’s filters interact with exposed elements: subtree, promoted, or flat. See expose modes for the semantics.
maxCompartmentEntries	-1	0.10.3	Per-compartment row cap: -1 shows all rows, 0 hides feature compartments, N shows the first N rows. Annotation compartments are unaffected by this setting.
showInheritedRows	true	0.10.3	Hides inherited (^) compartment rows when set to false.
showAnnotationRows	true	0.10.0	Hides annotation (documentation and metadata) compartment rows when set to false.
showConnectionElaborations	true	0.11.0	Draws all connections as edges when set to false.

The fileType, fileName and zoomLevel attributes name the output file, so they apply to the Modeler CLI only. In Modeler the save dialog asks for a file name and takes the format from its extension.

Note

Except for render, which comes from the standard Views library, these attributes are Syside-specific and have no effect in other tools.

Command-line options and [viz] settings interact with these attributes in a fixed order of precedence.

depth explained

depth controls how many levels of each exposed element’s subtree to traverse. Traversal happens after filtering, so the diagram may include element types that were filtered out. To avoid this, set depth to 0 or 1 when using filters.

0 shows only the filtered elements. Because filtering applies to elements rather than relationships, no relationships between them appear at this depth.

1 shows the filtered elements and the relationships between them: ownership, state transitions, connections, and similar. Use this depth when relationships need to be visible.

-1 (the default) means infinite depth, which is useful for exploratory diagrams but typically too detailed for documentation and may contain elements that should be filtered out.

render explained

render controls the layout style used to display the diagram. The default Nested style shows child elements inside their parents; Tree arranges them as a branching tree instead.

To switch to Tree layout, add a render Views::asTreeDiagram; statement to the view. For a single element, the layout can also be picked in the panel with the Layout picker, without changing the model.

Common pitfalls

The following behaviors are correct but regularly surprise view authors.

View name becomes diagram frame title

The view name is not an internal identifier: it renders verbatim as the diagram title in the frame, so a view named 05_power_distribution shows that 05_ to every reader, in a diagram panel as much as in an exported file. On the command line the fileName attribute sets the output file name independently, so ordering prefixes can live there while the title stays presentable.

depth demotes elements instead of hiding them

Elements beyond the depth limit collapse into compartment rows of their parent. Relationship edges that target a demoted element (verify, satisfy, allocate, and similar) cannot render as arrows and surface as textual compartment entries instead.

To keep relationship arrows, keep both endpoints within the depth limit, or leave the depth unlimited.

Relationship edges need both endpoints as nodes

If one end of a keyword relationship is absent or demoted to a compartment row, the edge disappears or degrades to text.