Organizing the Relationships Graph: layout, colors, and notes

Beginner

Keep the Relationships Graph navigable as your solution grows by applying a consistent visual layout, using color coding, and adding notes to document your design decisions.

What you'll learn

How to arrange TOs into logical groups in the graph
How to use color coding to distinguish functional areas
How to add text notes to document design intent directly in the graph

A disorganized Relationships Graph becomes unreadable as the solution grows — disciplined visual organization is as important as the relationship design itself.

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Group related TOs into islands

Drag TOs so that each layout's anchor and its buoys are clustered together with clear whitespace between clusters. This makes it immediately obvious which TOs belong to which layout context.

FileMaker Script

# Recommended graph organization:
#
# Row 1 (Core data tables — anchors):
#   Customers    Orders    Products    Employees
#
# Row 2 (Buoys and utility TOs):
#   c_Orders     o_LineItems  p_Categories  e_Reports
#   c_Contacts   o_Products   p_Suppliers   e_Manager
#
# Row 3 (Globals and utility):
#   Globals      AppSettings  ReportGlobals

How layout context determines related records Back to Relationships