Physical Maps

Maps built in the DNE environment using the two contribution wings or the affinity area, and displayed in the Maps room, capture the logical relations between NEs and present these relations context-sensitively, displaying impact relations for a particular NE in a model. This makes a DNE model uniquely suited for assessing the importance of any NE in your model:

However, these "logical maps" do not capture certain types of relations, like spatial relations, and do not give you the "big picture", or the model as a whole. That is why from every map you can easily generate a printable physical map:

A physical map is not context-sensitive - it shows all relations in the model, not just the relations in which your active NE is involved. It's like taking a step back from the active NE so that you can get a broader view of the model as a whole. And physical maps allow you to present physical relations, such as far or near, or "north-by-northwest of...". On a physical map you can move any NE in order to reflect a physical relation, without affecting the logical (that is, contribution or affinity) relations created when the map was built. For instance, if you are mapping a subway system, a regular contribution map allows you to track which station follows which, but does not allow you to track which stations are close together and which are farther apart, or which are farther north and which farther south. This can be tracked on a physical map.

Physical maps can be constructed simply by taking the existing NE relations and adding a spatial component. However, relations can be added and removed directly on any physical map, without affecting the logical map. That is, you can create a physical map that accurately reflects a logical map (plus the addition of spatial relations) or you can create one that has different relations than the logical map for the NE.

Physical maps can be saved as tiles.