Illustrating subsystems with object hierarchies

In the Systems Engineering Function view and Logical Block view, you can build hierarchical object structures that represent functional and logical architectures. These structures model the relationships and interactions among systems and their component subsystems.

For example, to build a functional decomposition in the Function view:

1. Start with a single function to represent the entire system.
   • The new function occupies the top level in the Function view.
2. At the next lower level, add functions that define the overall system functionality at a lower level.
   • These objects become the children of the top level object.
3. Below those functions, continue to add functions that decompose the system into finer levels of detail.
   • These objects become the children of the previous level.

With custom subtypes of functions and logical blocks, you can build architectures for other purposes, such as work breakdown structures and organization charts. For example, you can create subtypes to represent elements of a process, and use the subtypes to construct a process flow.