What Are Navigation Trees?

Folders keep your model tidy while you build it. A navigation tree does something different: it imposes a reading order over your model — the way you'd lay out chapters in a handbook or sections on a website — without moving anything.

A tree is an ordered set of branches. Each branch can:

Group related elements under a heading you name.
Pull in elements automatically — point a branch at a node type (e.g. all Capabilities) or at one of your saved filters, and its matches appear beneath it.
Follow relationships — expand from a starting element along a relationship (e.g. a Capability and everything it contains), to any depth you choose.
Hold specific elements you place by hand.

Branches can nest, so you can build anything from a flat menu to a deep outline.

Trees vs. folders

A folder owns an element — an element lives in exactly one folder.
A tree branch only references elements. The same element can appear in several trees, and in several places within one tree. Editing a tree never moves or changes your model.

What trees are used for

A Browse view in the navigator, so readers can explore the model the way you intend it to be read (see Browsing a Model with the Reader View).
Later: the section order of published sites and PDF reports.

You can create as many trees as you like — for example a By capability tree for architects and a Getting started tree for newcomers, over the same model.