Analyzing differences in the Compare Models window

Chapter 10 Comparing and Merging Models

Analyzing differences in the Compare Models window

The Compare Models window allows you to compare the contents of two models:

The window is divided in two parts:

The object comparison panes in the upper part of the comparison window display two models of the same type in a tree format and highlight the differences between them.
The property comparison pane in the lower part of the comparison window displays the properties of the nodes selected in the model trees. The property comparison part is divided in three columns:
- Property - displays the name of the selected property
- Model 1 - displays the properties of the object belonging to the model on the left of the dialog box
- Model 2 - displays the properties of the object belonging to the model on the right of the dialog box

Four types of differences between the models can be detected during a comparison:

Creation: When an object is created in one of the models, it is displayed in blue.
Deletion: When an object is deleted from a model, it is displayed as a ghost object in the model tree.
Modification: When the properties of an object are different between models, a red exclamation mark is displayed in the bottom right corner of the object node.
Move: When the object has been moved to a different position, for example, a column moved in the list of columns. In this case a green triangle is displayed in the bottom right corner of the object indicates that there has been a move. The green triangle is displayed both on the ghost object indicating the original position of the item and on the object in its new location.

Comparison symbols

Symbol	Description
	Ghost object which does not exist in one of the models
	Shortcut exists in model
(yellow)	Sub-objects are different
(red)	Object exists in both models with different properties
(green)	Object was moved and modified. This symbol indicates the initial location of the object in the model. This symbol always is displayed besides a ghost object.
(red)	Object was moved and modified. This symbol indicates the new location of the object in the model.
(green)	Object was moved

Opening the property sheet of an object in read-only mode
You can open the property sheet of an object in read-only mode by double-clicking the object node from the object comparison part.
You can also right-click the object node and select Properties from the contextual menu .
You can open several property sheets in order to compare the properties of different objects. However, all property sheets will be closed when you close the Comparison window.

Navigating among differences

You can navigate among the differences that appear in the object comparison part using the following tools from the comparison toolbar:

Tool	Description
	Goes to the first difference in the tree view
	Goes to the previous difference in the tree view
	Goes to the next difference in the tree view
	Goes to the last difference in the tree view

Hot keys for expanding and collapsing all nodes at once
To expand all nodes at once, you can press the numpad star (*).
To collapse all nodes at once, you can press the numpad minus sign (-).