Object Connection Types can be defined manually to determine how design objects may be related to other design objects.
The relationship between a relief value and a tank and pressure vessel, where many sub-entity relief values lead to a single super-entity tank and pressure vessel, can be defined as an object connection type as below:
| Class Super Description | Class Sub Description | Object Super Description | Object Sub Description | Super Only One check box | Sub Only One check box |
| can affect | can be affected by | affects | is affected by | selected | cleared |
Once object connection types are defined, they should in turn be defined as Class Relations to show how objects of one class should be related to objects of another class. For example:
| Class | Relation Type | Class |
| VALVE RELIEF | can affect | TANK & PRESSURE VESSEL |
Once Class Relations are established, they can be used in Design Object Connections where design objects of one class can be connected to design objects of another class, based on the object connection types defined for a particular class in class relations. For example:
| Plant | Object | Object Class | Sort Order | Relation Description | Connected Object | Connected Object Class |
| Main Plant | RV-001 - Relief Valve 1 for Tank 1 | VALVE RELIEF | 1 | affects | TNK-01 | TANK & PRESSURE VESSEL |
Object connections will then appear under the object's structure in direct relational folders such as the Object Connections folder.