The References Window
You use the References window to view and browse versions that are referenced from a particular version or, conversely, versions that are referencing a particular version. This enables you, for example, to discover model-file and model-part relationships without first having to open a model in the COMSOL Desktop.
The versions listed in the References window for a model version correspond to the subset of entries in the Auxiliary Data window whose Location column point to the database. These entries can either be data files used as input or output, or geometry parts used as input.
The references shown in the window follows the current version selection in The Databases Window, The Model Manager Window, or The Maintenance Window (depending on which window is focused). Click Link with Selection () to disable this automatic linking. You can still update the References window with a new version by right-clicking and selecting References ().
You can view either referenced versions or referencing versions by clicking Show Referenced Versions () or Show Referencing Versions (), respectively. If you open the window for a selected model version that does not contain reusable geometry parts, referenced versions are shown by default. For a file version or a model version containing such parts, referencing versions are shown. The title of the selected version is shown at the top of the window. If a model version reference found in the table is opened in the COMSOL Desktop, the corresponding table row is highlighted in bold.
The referenced or referencing versions are shown in a table sorted in chronological order. A maximum of 100 most recent versions are initially shown. Click the Show More button () to append the next 100 versions to the table. You can set another value for this default page size in the Result Page Size field on the Model Manager page in the Preferences dialog box.
The table columns are:
The type column — the type of the item represented by an icon.
The Title column — the title set for the item in that version.
The Reference Type column — the type of reference between a model version and a file version describing in what way they are related.
The Saved column — the time in which the version was saved.
The Saved By column — the name of the user that saved the version.
The Repository column — the repository that the version belongs to.
The Branch column — the target branch in which the version was saved.
The Comments column — the optional comment provided when the version was saved.
You can iteratively explore how different item versions depend on each other by repeatedly selecting a row in the table and clicking References ().
The database protects the referential integrity between item versions: a file version that is referenced by a model version, for example, cannot be permanently deleted, as long as both versions are saved in the same database.
The References Window Toolbar
The toolbar in the References window contains the following toolbar buttons:
Click the Refresh button () to refresh the table in case any new version references have been created. The table will automatically refresh if you save a new version to the database from the COMSOL Desktop.
Click the Show More button () to append older versions to the table.
Click the Link with Selection button () to enable or disable whether to automatically update the References window based on the current selection in the Databases window or the Model Manager window (which ever had focus last).
Click the Version Details button () to open The Version Details Dialog Box containing more information on the version.
Click the Open button () to open a selected model version in the COMSOL Desktop.
Click the Run button () to launch and run a selected version in the COMSOL Desktop. Only enabled if the selected version is an application.
Click the Preview File button () to open a selected file version using the default application for its file type. See Previewing Files.
Click the Compare button () to compare a selected model version with the model opened in the COMSOL Desktop. Select two model versions to compare them with each other.
Click the References button () to show version references for the selected version.
Click the Show Drafts button () to enable or disable whether to include version references that are draft versions.
Click the Show Referenced Versions button () to show versions that are referenced by the viewed version (as indicated by the title next to the toolbar).
Click the Show Referencing Versions button () to show versions that are referencing the viewed version (as indicated by the title next to the toolbar).
Select from the Reference Types menu () the types of references to include in the table. The available options are Input File, Output File, and Geometry Part.
If you right-click a version in the table, you can also
Select Disk Space Usage () to see an estimate of the required disk space usage if the version is saved to the file system. See Estimating Disk Space Usage.
Select Export () to export the version to the file system — see Exporting Items.
Select Export to New Local Database () to export the version to a new local database — see Export to New Local Database.
Select Branch () to create a new branch from the commit that the version was saved in.
Select Snapshot () to record a snapshot of the commit that the version was saved in.
Select Copy Location () to copy a text string with a URI that uniquely identifies a model or file version in the database to the clipboard. See Copying Model and File Locations for what you can do with this text string.
Select Clear Computed Data () to clear all built, computed, and plotted data of a model version. Data shared with other model versions via deduplication will not be deleted from the database. Clearing cannot be undone. See Built, Computed, and Plotted Data.
Select Permanently Delete () to permanently delete a version in the database. Data shared with other versions via deduplication is not deleted. Permanently deleting cannot be undone. See Permanently Deleting Models and Data Files.
You will only be able to perform this deletion for versions that are not referenced by other versions.
Select Restore Version () to save the selected version as a new latest version. The target item and target branch for the save is the same as that of the selected version. See Restore Version for further details.
Select Settings () to update the Settings window with the version.
Reference-tracking in Model Manager
Model Manager keeps explicit track of references between versions when those versions are all stored in the same database. To see versions from other databases that are referenced by a model version, open the model version in the COMSOL Desktop and scan the Auxiliary Data window for input or output with a database set in the Location column.
References between a model version and other item versions are automatically discovered and tracked when a model is saved to a database. Model Manager looks for versions referenced in the model tree of the saved model and matches them with versions stored in the target database. This reference-tracking mechanism may lead to some surprising results that are good to be aware of:
If you update a file from the Model Manager workspace — for example via the Settings window — the saved file version will not be referenced by any model version, even if the previous file version was referenced. To see the references for the older file version, open The Versions Window for the file item, select the older version, and click the References button ().
If you open the References window for a file version, you are likely to discover that it is referenced by a whole sequence of model versions. For a file version with reference type Output file, the oldest model version in that sequence is likely the best candidate for reproducing the output.