Exploring Your Model

The Model Explorer is a workspace for browsing your model as a living, force-directed graph. Unlike a diagram — which is a layout you curate and save — the Explorer is a scratch space: you pull in the elements you care about, let them arrange themselves automatically, and follow the connections. Nothing here is saved with the model, so explore freely.

Open it with the Explorer button in the workspace switcher at the top of the canvas area (next to Designer and Reader).

Adding elements to the canvas

Search using the bar at the top, then click a result to drop that node onto the canvas.
Drag a node from the Navigator (the tree on the left) onto the canvas.
Drag a node type from the Navigator onto the canvas to bring in every node of that type at once — a fast way to see, for example, all your Servers or all your Requirements together, with their interconnections drawn automatically. This is one of the quickest ways to get a meaningful view started.
Expand a node's neighbourhood: right-click a node and use the Expand neighbours controls to pull in the nodes around it, step by step (see Following connections below).

As you add elements, the Explorer automatically draws the relationships between them.

Following connections: expand and contract

Once a node is on the canvas you can grow the view outward from it one hop at a time — and pull back just as easily. Right-click a node and use the Expand neighbours row:

+ brings in the node's direct neighbours. Click + again to reach the next step out (neighbours of those neighbours), and so on. The number shows how many hops out you've gone.
− steps back, removing the outermost nodes you just pulled in.
All brings in everything connected to the node, however many steps away, in one click.

Expanding is additive and tidy: + and − only add or remove the nodes around this node. Anything else you've placed on the canvas stays put — so you can build a picture from several starting points without one expansion wiping out another.

Grow the whole canvas at once. Right-click an empty area and use Expand all nodes by. Its −/+ stepper widens or narrows the neighbourhood around every visible node together — handy for opening up the context around a whole cluster, then dialling it back.

Selecting nodes and relationships

Click a node to select it — its details open in the Properties panel on the right.
Click a relationship line to select it — the relationship's details open in the Properties panel too, and the line thickens so you can see which one you picked. This lets you inspect or edit a connection without leaving the Explorer.

Quick-query lenses

Lenses are one-click queries that fill the canvas with a useful slice of your model. Right-click an empty area of the canvas to open the lens menu, then pick one:

Most connected — your busiest nodes (the hubs with the most relationships). It starts by showing just the single most-connected node; use the −/+ stepper beside it to reveal the next-busiest hubs one at a time.
Orphans — nodes with no relationships at all (often things you meant to connect).
Off-diagram — nodes that don't appear on any diagram yet.
Recently modified — the nodes you've changed most recently.
Few properties — nodes with no property values filled in.

Running a lens replaces whatever is on the canvas, like loading a fresh query. The same right-click menu has Clear canvas to start over.

Tidying the layout

Drag any node to reposition it; it stays put while the rest of the graph flexes around it.
Use the anchor (🧲) button in the toolbar to make the layout tighter or looser.
Use Fit to frame everything on screen.

Tips

The Explorer is the fastest way to answer "what's connected to this?" — drop in a node and expand.
Drag a node type in to survey a whole category of your model at once.
Lenses are great for spotting gaps: run Orphans to find disconnected elements, or Off-diagram to see what you haven't drawn yet.