Focus Entity (Ownership Diagrams)

Use Focus entity when you want StructureGram to quickly cut an ownership diagram down to the entities connected to one selected entity.

This is useful when a full Group is too large and you need a cleaner working set for analysis, review, or presentation — for example, a diagram of one company from a larger group.

Common Examples

One company: focus the company to show its shareholders, directors and subsidiaries.
SMSF-focused view: focus the SMSF to show its members, trustee and the entities linked to it.
Discretionary trust-focused view: focus the trust to show the trustee, appointor and beneficiaries.
Corporate group-focused view: focus the holding company with All links to show the whole connected corporate cluster.

Where You Can Use It

Focus entity is inside the Entities in this diagram dialog. Open it with the green Entities button:

On an ownership diagram, click Entities in the header next to the diagram name.
Or, on the Diagrams page, click the diagram's Entities button.

Focus entity is for ownership diagrams only. It is not shown for family trees.

Quick Steps

Open Entities for an ownership diagram.
Click Focus entity at the top of the dialog to open it (it is collapsed by default and marked optional).
Choose an entity in Select focus entity.
Click Direct links or All links.
The ticks in the entity list are replaced with the connected set, and a message confirms how many entities were selected.
Review the list. Tick or untick anything you want to change.
Click Save Changes.

Nothing on the diagram changes until you click Save Changes. If you click Cancel, the diagram keeps its previous entities.

Direct Links vs All Links

Direct links — the focus entity and every entity one link away from it.
All links — the focus entity and every entity connected to it directly or indirectly: the whole connected structure around it.

Example:

Beneficiary A -> Trust <- Beneficiary B
                     <- Beneficiary C
                     <- Trustee Co <- Director

Focusing Beneficiary A with Direct links gives Beneficiary A and the Trust.
Focusing Beneficiary A with All links gives everything above, because each entity is connected to Beneficiary A through the Trust.
Focusing the Trust with Direct links gives the Trust, the three beneficiaries and Trustee Co, but not the Director (two links away).

How Connected Entities Are Chosen

StructureGram looks at every entity in the diagram's Group — not just the entities currently in the diagram — and follows relationships from the focus entity in either direction.

Only ownership-structure relationships count:

shareholdings, unitholdings, partnership and holding interests;
trustee, appointor, beneficiary and named beneficiary;
SMSF members;
directors, secretaries and public officers;
asset ownership, loans, security, guarantors and leases;
receivers/managers, administrators and liquidators.

Family relationships (spouse, parent, child and so on) never count, so focusing a company does not pull in the relatives of its directors.

Diagram Settings Affect the Result

A relationship only counts if the diagram draws it as a link. Relationship display is set in Diagram Settings → Relationships:

If a relationship type is shown as a link, it connects entities for Focus entity.
If it is shown inside the entity instead of as a link, or turned off, it does not.
Ownership relationships always count. SMSF members count unless SMSF member display is turned off, and named beneficiaries count unless beneficiary class nodes are turned off.

So more relationship types drawn as links usually means a wider focused set.

If You Want a Tighter Focus

Use Direct links instead of All links.
Or, in Diagram Settings → Relationships, stop drawing the widening relationship type (for example, directors or loans) as a link, then run Focus entity again.
Then untick any remaining extras before you click Save Changes.

Node Information vs Drawn Entities

Node-level information can still show details about entities that are not drawn as separate nodes.

For example, if relationship details like directors or trustees are configured to display in nodes, those details can appear in node content even when the diagram is trimmed and those related entities are not drawn as separate nodes.

What Is Included and Not Included

Included

Entities in the Group that are reachable from the focus entity through the relationships listed above.

Not Included

Disconnected entities.
Entities connected only through family relationships, or through relationship types not drawn as links.
Entities in other Groups. (To show directly related entities from other Groups, tick Include related entities in other groups at the bottom of the dialog on the diagram canvas.)
Assets as focus targets. The focus picker lists individuals, companies, trusts, partnerships and SMSFs. Assets owned by included entities still appear on the diagram when asset display is on.

Changing or Undoing the Result

Focus entity is a quick way to fill in the ticks; it is not a mode that stays on. After saving:

Open Entities and run Focus entity again with a different entity or the other button, or
Tick and untick entities yourself, or click Select All to go back to the whole Group.

The focus entity is not remembered after you save, so the next time you open the dialog you choose again.

Scenarios Interaction

Scenarios resolve from the base diagram's entities. If you save a new selection on the base diagram:

The scenario's base scope changes accordingly.
Existing scenario step geometry is still managed by scenario step state.

The Entities button is hidden while viewing a scenario; open the base diagram to change it. See Scenarios for full behavior.

Troubleshooting

"Failed to apply focus entity"

Common causes:

The selected entity is not in this diagram's Group.
You do not have permission to edit this diagram.
A temporary network or server error occurred.

Try reopening the dialog and running it again.

I got fewer entities than expected

The missing entity is connected only through a family relationship, or a relationship type that the diagram does not draw as a link.
You used Direct links and the entity is more than one link away — try All links.
The relationship isn't recorded yet.

Check the relationship and Diagram Settings → Relationships, run Focus entity again, or tick the entity yourself.

I got more entities than expected

All links follows every connection, so a shared shareholder or director can bridge into a second structure. Use Direct links, stop drawing the bridging relationship type as a link, or untick the extras before saving.

The diagram didn't change

Focus entity only fills in the ticks. Click Save Changes to apply them.

Why did my scenarios change?

Saving a new selection on the base diagram changes the base scope that its scenarios use.

Best Practices

Keep one full-reference diagram for the whole Group.
Make a separate diagram for each company or sub-structure, and use Focus entity to fill it quickly.
Review the ticks before saving.
Run Focus entity again after major relationship or Diagram Settings changes.

Help & Documentation