The Object Browser provides a hierarchical view on the design data based on graph, object and property aggregation structures. It is particularly useful when there are deep structures of objects embedded as properties in other objects, or for finding where a particular model element is used.

To use the Object Browser, either choose the ‘Object Browser’ page in the Main Launcher, or alternatively open a new instance of it in its own window by selecting Browsers | Object Browser. Figure 3–29 shows an Object Browser window.

The Elements list in the middle of the Object Browser initially shows all graphs of the selected project(s), along with all objects and their properties that contain other objects or graphs. The Contents list on the right then shows the selected element’s properties with their values.

Below the Elements list, the Graph pull-down list changes what is shown beneath graphs: their Objects, Relationships, or Roles, the objects with ports and beneath them their Ports used in the graph, All of the above (with ports directly under the graph), or All Except Ports. These can be useful for finding where a particular model element is used. For instance, to find all places in the SDL project where ‘vIn’ Gate ports are used, choose Ports used and set a Filter of ‘vIn:*’. You can see from the results that they are in three graphs: defined as ports at the top level of the AccessPoint and AccessControlUnit graphs, and used as ports in the ‘ap’ and ‘ControlUnit’ instances of those components in the Access Control graph.

The Dedup checkbox, on by default, hides graphs from the top level if they appear lower in the tree as subgraphs (as in the Graph Browser). Turning it off will ensure that the top level shows all graphs.

Pop-up menus are available for all element types in the Element list. For graphs the menu is similar to that in the Graph Browser (see Figure 3–25 and the description of the menu there). The pop-up menu for objects has two operations: Properties... and Info that bring up the property dialog and Info Tool for the selected object. For collection properties the menu offers four operations. Two of those, Properties... and Info, actually both call first the Info Tool for the selected element, from which you can then proceed by viewing or editing its properties. The Add... operation creates and adds a new object to the respective collection property, whereas Add existing... allows you to add an existing object.

On the Content list, pop-up menus are available only for non-property values (Figure 3–30). Use Properties... and Info to access the property dialog or Info Tool for the selected non-property. From this menu it is also possible to add new (Add...) or existing objects (Add Existing...) as values or remove a value (Remove). Use Cut, Copy, Paste and Paste Special... to cut or copy the selected object to the clipboard or paste from the clipboard.