Ex. 1: Basic Data and Infomation Modeling with SES

The Figure shows an example of an SES for specifying several automotive types. Every entity car consists according to the aspect node car of the entities engine, wheels and chassis. The entity engine is either specialized to the entity diesel or the entity gasoline and an attribute engine capacity is inherit to both. Moreover, the attribute stroke_cycle has been attached to the entity gasoline, which can be set to the values two or four. The entity wheels is followed by a multiple-aspect node with a multiplicity of 4. Hence, this node will break down into four entities of type winter tire.

Figure: Several automotive types specified with an SES

The SES in the figure characterizes the three different automotive types:

• diesel engine with a specific engine capacity, four winter wheels, chassis
• two-stroke cycle gasoline engine with a specific engine capacity, four winter wheels, chassis
• four-stroke cycle gasoline engine with a specific engine capacity, four winter wheels, chassis

In doing so, the SES can be used for clearly defining different characteristics of modular, hierachical problems. Coupling relations between entities can be specified at aspect nodes. Moreover, the SES supports the specification of selection constraints. This means that the selection of an entity in a specialization may cause the selection of a certain entity in another specialization. The example in the figure does not define any constraints or couplings.