Composite Symbol

A composite symbol represents an electrical device containing one or more blocks. The blocks are represented by nested device symbols that also exist within Capital Symbol Designer as individually-selectable symbols. The complete composite may also contain optional internal connectivity and cross-reference placeholders.

When placing a composite symbol in Capital Systems Modeler, you have the choice of placing the complete composite or any of the sub-blocks. If you place the complete composite, the placed graphics will match the composite symbol. If you place one of the sub-blocks, the placed graphic will match the original sub-block symbol. If you then want to place a second instance (or nth instance) of the device, you can again choose to place either the complete composite or one of the sub-blocks.

Note

If the project preference “Disallow port duplication within a design” is set, you cannot place the composite and a sub block together as this would create duplicate instances of the same port. To allow such placement, the project preference “Disallow port duplication within a design” should be unset.

The composite symbol can be used as a plug map that you use to create a shared port list for a device in Capital Project Manager. See the Capital Project Manager help system for more information. Note that when you set whether ports are reserved or reusable, the ports on an individual block must all be reusable or all reserved for the same designs.

When you add the shared device to a diagram in Capital Systems Modeler, the blocks can be used to refine the selection of ports and to enable you to place a more specific symbol representing the ports in that instance on the diagram.

See Cross-References on Objects for more information about how cross-references work with composite symbols.

From Capital Systems Modeler, you can change the composite symbol that is used for a shared device.

• Updating a Symbol Block in a Composite Symbol

• Replacing Composite Symbols for Shared Functions

Parent Topic:

Symbols

Capital Systems Modeler User Guide, 2512.2606

Unpublished work. © 2026 Siemens