Adding structure detail with containers

Note Microsoft Visio Professional must be installed on your computer. Teamcenter containers are available only in diagrams for owners that are selected in the Function and Logical Block views.

Like Visio's native containers, Teamcenter containers hold other shapes inside visual boundaries, where you can arrange related shapes in clusters. In addition, Teamcenter containers show structure levels below the immediate children of a diagram owner.

A Container master shape is included in each default Teamcenter stencil. The master shape is mapped to the Function or LogicalBlock object type, according to the stencil's application domain. A container in a diagram represents a function or logical block in the diagram owner's structure.

To add a container, you drop the master shape from a Teamcenter stencil onto the diagram page. In the structure, a new function or logical block is created for the empty container.

Tip You can add containers to other containers. Each nested container allows you to see one level deeper in the structure. You cannot add a container to a smaller container — to do so, you must reduce the size of the container and then add it to the other container.

Then, you can add shapes to the container in the diagram. You can move existing shapes inside the boundary, and you can drop new ones from the stencil into the container:

• For existing shapes that you move inside the boundary, the corresponding elements are moved below the containing object in the structure.
• For new shapes that are mapped to Teamcenter object types, corresponding elements are created below the containing object in the structure.

Warning When you move, copy, or delete a container, you move, copy, or delete its members also.

Containers are resized automatically to fit their contents, although you can resize them manually as well. Resizing a container over existing shapes does not add them to the container, nor does it affect the structure — shapes become container members only when they are placed inside the boundary. As container members, shapes remain independent of each other and of the container itself; you can work on individual members without ungrouping and regrouping the entire cluster.

Tip To create a connection from a container member to an external object, you must first add a connection from the member to the container's boundary. This action creates an interface on the member and an interface on the boundary. Then, you add another connection from the boundary interface to the external object. In the structure, connections and interfaces are created for the corresponding objects.

To remove shapes from a container, you move them out of the boundary. Those shapes become the diagram owner's direct children in the structure, and their relationship to the container is deleted.

Note You cannot remove a shape to which connections are attached. Using the related Visio features, you can lock containers to prevent shapes from being added and removed. Container contents are updated automatically when the diagram is reopened.