Stopping Automated Nesting of Elements

[johnmeredith]

Hi all,
I've created an MDG to support some enterprise architecture modelling. We're defining building blocks from scratch such as a range of actors/organisations but noticed an odd issue that we cannot work around.

• I want to define the relationship between several organisations.
• I want to establish the relationship as a link, and may define custom connectors (we would like to generate custom views in future.
• I do not want the organisations to nest if they are dragged onto eachotehr in a diagram. Some diagrams, for aesthetic reasons may appear to nest, but this is for display only

The example is
1. Add Organisation (actor) element, display as rectangle, resize.
2. Add related organisation (actor) to diagram, as rectangle.
3. Drag the latter within the "parent" (parent in loosest sense).
4. The related organisation now moves from its own package to nest under the "parent".
When using TOGAF, this behaviour does not manifest. But in my own MDG which is based upon UML it does. So how do I stop it?

Thanks!

[KP]

I can think of three ways, none of which are entirely satisfactory:

1. Lock the parent
2. Preferences > Objects > Support for Composite Objects = OFF
3. Keep the parent and child in separate packages

I suspect that #3 is the reason you don't see it happening with TOGAF.