The Canvas


The Canvas is the main workspace where you model your processes in LINQ. To begin, you need to Create Organisation and then Create Model.  Once saved, you'll have an empty workspace where you can define your model by adding nodes and relationships. 



Here are the details of the Canvas menus:

1. Main Menu


In the Canvas, there are two features unique to the Main Menu:


  • Current State: Indicates that the model displayed represents the current state. It also serves as a link to return to the organisation dashboard.


  • Up to Date: Displays the save status of the model. When changes are made, this button will provide options to save or cancel changes. 




2. The Tool Bar


The tool bar provides a range of options to interact with and view your workspace effectively.  


Here's a quick overview of each tool's function:  






Several icons in the toolbar feature dropdown menus, offering additional options or settings:

  • Close node properties (left panel): Use this to show or hide the node properties panel on the left side of the screen. 


  • Download model: It provides options for downloading your model in JSON or CSV format, as well as exporting the model as an image. 


  • Change view direction: It allows you to change the layout direction of the model. You can choose between Bottom-up, Top-down, Left-to-right, or Right-to-left orientations to best suit your workflow and visualisation needs.


  • Reset layout: It helps you tidy up your model while you are modelling, automatically organising all nodes in a clear and visually cohesive manner. 


  • Toggle node cardinality: It allows you to adjust the connections of nodes by displaying or hiding specific relationships between nodes. It helps in visualising complex models by simplifying the representation of connections and making the structure easier to interpret. 


  • Groups: It allows you to organise nodes by different categories, such as action, value, or tag. 


  • Tag selected edges: If tags have been applied to edges in the model, this option allows you to remove tags from the selected edges. 


  • Create filter: Create a filter for the model, including options to filter by tags, actions, roles, systems, inputs, or outputs. 


Once a filter with specific actions, systems, roles, inputs, and outputs has been applied, the filtered items in the model will turn grey. Insights will then be calculated based only on the unfiltered nodes.



  • Clear filter: It removes all filters applied to the model.   

  • Move downstream of selected actions to a new model: It allows you to extract the selected actions and processes into a separate model.  When you right-click an action node, a context menu appears (as shown in the below screenshot). You can select either Select upstream or Select downstream to highlight all connected nodes in blue. Once the nodes are selected, you can click the Move downstream of selected actions to a new model icon to transfer the downstream nodes and their connections into a new model.   


  • Show labels: It allows you to display different types of labels on your nodes. When you click this icon, a dropdown menu appears, offering options such as Cost, Hours, Value, and more. 



  • Hamburger menu: This icon appears when your browser window is narrow, hiding some toolbar buttons from view. In such cases, click on the Hamburger Menu icon to reveal any hidden buttons. For optimal access to all available features, try widening your browser window to see all toolbar buttons without having to use it. 


  • Open insights (right panel): It expands the insights panel on the right side of the canvas, providing detailed information about the current model. For more information on using insights, please refer to the Insights section in this guide. 


3. Tags


Tags help in organising nodes into categories, and filters can be applied based on these tags.  To apply tags in your model:   


  • Choose a tag group from the No tag group (Select a tag group) drop-down menu. When you select it, the tag group selected will be the default for Tag selected edges in the model.



  • Click on the Tag selected edges icon in the toolbar and select the appropriate tag to apply.



Note: Each node can have only one tag from each group, and tags are used to categorise nodes. For filtering purposes, use these tags to refine the display based on groupings.


4. Nodes


The Canvas contains various types of nodes that form the core components of the model. These nodes and their functions will be explained further in the Node Description and Usage section of this user guide. 



5. Node Properties (Properties Panel)


When selecting a node, its properties are displayed on the left panel where you can adjust the frequency and duration of actions, set input numbers, and choose how information from multiple inputs is processed (sum, greatest, least, or average).  For more information, please refer to the Duration and frequency section of this user guide. 




6. Insights


Use the Open insights (right panel) to view different aspects of the model’s insights, it provides real-time calculations for the model, automatically updating as changes are made.  For more information on using insights, please refer to the Insights section in this guide.