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I have created an object in a 3-layered diagram. This object called "Price" is of relevance over all 3 layers (same attributes same methods). Rather than copy and paste it I was wondering if it is possible to create some sort of alias of this object on the other two layers so that it would appear as a thumbnail and hyperlink to the original instance of the object.

Hi Michael thanks for your post! Unfortunately this type of "alias" object or linking to a specific shape across multiple layers isn't currently supported in Lucidchart. However this definitely sounds like an interesting use case and your feedback is super valuable. Would you be willing to share more about how you'd like to use a feature like this and what you'd like to see in this experience?


Thank you for your feedback on my feedback ! 


I see the layers in charts as a way to represent relationships between processes and data objects in a 3 dimensional space. This is necessary if there are many processes and objects and we want to keep a manageable number of flow arrows avoiding the plate of spaghetti effect. It's like having a house with several floors. Imagine a trading operation with Front_Office Middle_Office and Back_Office and imagine we have 1 layer representing each office. Say the object Price is imported into Middle_Office through several datafeeds that are extracted and transformed. These are then used by the Front and Back office processes. The same Price object rather than repeat it on each layer would be described as one object in all its complexity (datafeeds linking to it attributes methods) and represented as a link with just the word ("Middle_Office/Price") on layers Front_Office and Back_Office. The word would be a hyperlink so that clicking it from Front_Office or Back_Office woud take you back to the parent object on Middle_Office. You could also have inheritance of color and format from the parent object to its aliasses.


This is excellent Michael thank you for this detail!


Thanks Micah


In the same vein is it possible to visually link objects on different pages (arrow) or alternatively to hyperlink between them ? 


Hi Michael it's not possible to visually connect objects across pages with another shape like an arrow but it is in fact possible to hyperlink between an object on one page and another page (though not a specific object on that page). To do this select an object on one page then under the Link to menu choose Page then select the page you want to link to. 



 


I've demonstrated this in the GIF below:


 


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