Architecting and designing > Archimate 3 > Introduction > ArchiMate relationships > Symbol-Inside-Symbol relationships
  
Symbol-Inside-Symbol relationships
The Aggregates and Composes relationships (see ArchiMate relationships) can be visualized as either a line drawn between two representative elements, or by showing one element placed inside the other element.
If you place one symbol inside another symbol within ArchiMate viewpoints, an Aggregates or Composes relationship (see ArchiMate relationships) is created between the two elements (if the elements can be related by Aggregates and Composes).
When you save and reopen the diagram, the relationship line from the symbol to its embedded symbol will appear. You can hide this line as described below:
1 Right-click the relationship line.
2 Select Hide Selected ArchiMate Relationship Line(s) from the popup menu.
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This happens on all ArchiMate diagrams except the Capability Map and Resource Map – which are strictly designed for symbol-in-symbol aggregates/composes relationships (no line).
Diagram properties controlling Symbol-Inside-Symbol structures
Two diagram properties enable you to control symbol-inside-symbol relationship behavior.
1 Select Edit > Diagram Properties (or right-click the diagram workspace and select Diagram Properties).
2 In the Behavior tab, toggle either of the two properties as shown below:
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Auto-populate implicit relationships
This is ON by default. Toggle it off if you do not want to create a relationship between two symbols if you place one inside the other.
Auto-refresh box-in-box inconsistency indicators
This is OFF by default. Toggle it ON if you want System Architect to present ghostbuster indicators where the symbol organization does not match the relationships in the underlying definitions.
Heat Maps
Certain ArchiMate Viewpoints rely on a structured, box-in-box view of the relationships between architecture elements, and running analytics to create Heat Maps. Two such views are:
Capability Map (see ArchiMate Capability Map Viewpoint)
Resource Map (see ArchiMate Resource Map Viewpoint)
See also
Types of ArchiMate relationships
ArchiMate relationship types in System Architect
Allowed relationships between model elements
Indirect relationships
ArchiMate relationships