Template Hierarchy

Templates can contain child templates, forming a hierarchy that mirrors the physical structure of your equipment. When you instantiate a parent template, its entire subtree of child templates is created as nested assets.

Example

A pump template for a water treatment facility might have this structure:

Centrifugal Pump (template)
├── Drive Motor (child template, required)
├── Mechanical Seal (child template, required)
├── Bearing Assembly (child template, optional)
└── VFD Controller (child template, optional)

When you instantiate the pump template, all required child templates are created as sub-assets. Optional children can be included or excluded during instantiation.

Adding child templates

To add a child template, go to the Hierarchy tab on the template detail page and use the Add Child Template action.

Field	Required	Description
Child Template	Yes	Select from existing templates. You cannot add a template as its own child.
Default Name	No	A suggested name used when instantiating (e.g., "Main Gearbox"). If not set, the child template's own name is used.
Position	No	Display order among siblings (0-based). Controls the order in the hierarchy tree.
Required	No	If checked, this child must always be included when instantiating the parent. Optional children can be excluded.

Viewing the hierarchy

The hierarchy tab shows two sections:

Parent Templates — lists any templates that include this template as a child. Each entry shows the parent's name, category, whether this template is required, and the default name (if set).

Child Templates — displays the full subtree as an expandable tree view. Each node shows:

Template name (clickable link to the child template's detail page)
Category badge
"Required" badge (if applicable)
Default name (if set)
Child count

Removing a child template

To remove a child from the hierarchy, open the actions menu on the child node and select Remove from Parent. A confirmation dialog appears.

Removing a child template only removes the parent-child relationship. The child template itself is not deleted and remains available for use elsewhere.

Constraints

No circular dependencies — a template cannot be an ancestor and a descendant of the same template. The platform detects and prevents circular references.
No self-references — a template cannot be added as its own child.
Depth is unlimited — child templates can themselves have children, forming arbitrarily deep hierarchies.

Hierarchy and versioning

Adding or removing a child template is a structural change to the template. These changes are tracked through template versioning and reflected when comparing versions.