Component Parts inside of Components with Enterprise Architect

Question

I'm attempting to create a diagram like this (taken from this MS page):

It shows multiple levels of component diagrams and connections between those multiple levels.

I am trying to model a system with a lot of different deliverers. There will be a high-level component diagram which is based more on features, and shows what all the features require, and how they're interconnected.

Then inside each feature will be these parts that show more detail about the components, essentially all the modules that make up that feature.

In EA (Enterprise Architect), I can create a component and show all the interconnects, and I can create a component as a child diagram, but the ports of the parent diagram does not propagate to the child diagram, so what I'd really be left with will be a bunch of unconnected ports for the child diagram - granted if named appropriately, it may be obvious how they are connected.

But since I'm presenting this to a large audience, I'd like to have as little assumptions as possible, which is why I'm looking for this method.

Answer 1

In EA you need to create two diagrams: one for the overview and a second for the details. The overview just holds the outer component. When you right click the outer component you choose

from the context menu. This will open a new diagram where you place the outer component as link. Now you can add the inner structure.

The outer component will be shown as

where the infinity symbol indicates that it has a composite diagram. It will open on a dbl-click of the component.

Note that this procedure will work for all elements.