Designate a dummy module as a Group, show alternate formatting for clearer model building experience

DavidE

Similar to how you can set a line item to different formats to help readability and organization, I would like to have similar functionality in the module view window. Organizing the module view in a similar way would be really helpful as module count grows in large models. 

 

Currently the "best practice" is to create a dummy module and give it some way to stand out, such as "---" or "<<<" in the title.  My idea is to create a column in the modules view so the model builder can set the dummy module's style as a "group" which in turn should:

• Change the formatting of the module line to a different color, bold text etc. so it stands out
• Enable all modules underneath it to roll up / collapse (until the next group) using a little clickable triangle
• Inherit properties etc. (Example, Model builder can quickly set the "Functional area" of the group and it would pass that on to child modules)  

Here's a visual mockup of how I believe it would look when implemented:

Design with proposed changes

whitby

I like the initial idea. I agree that the ability to collapse functional areas would be really useful.

 

Looking at your mockup I'm wondering if you could extend that style column to allow sub-categorisation of modules e.g. your Group section and then by DISCO classification within it (or a custom classification), maybe even with some simple colour coding...

michael.jones

Great idea, I'd extend the idea to be a request for 'Folders' that we could create in any area, Modules, Lists, Actions etc. It would let us organise our models and tbf is provided in many other applications