Item properties, for what they really are
A property with data_type = item is a foreign key. The Aras admin UI barely shows it. Here it is an edge in the diagram, docked to the exact property row it comes from.
The data model behind Aras Innovator. Finally visible.
Drop in a package export and see the whole schema as a graph: item types, relationships and the item properties that hardly show up in the admin UI — plus every method and form that hangs off them.
Runs in your browser. No account, no install, no connection to your instance.
13
hygiene checks
10
artifact kinds read
3
kinds of edge
0
bytes uploaded
Capabilities
Four questions Aras itself will not answer.
What breaks if I rename this?
Methods, forms, workflows and ACLs are read along with the schema and linked to the item types they reference — including the ones where the type name only appears as a string inside method code.
What is different on Prod?
Compare two package exports: added, removed and changed item types, properties and methods — colour-coded in the diagram and as a change list you can work through.
What has piled up over the years?
Thirteen checks across the whole model: orphaned item types, references into nowhere, missing keys, coupling to Aras system packages, naming conventions.
Read out of the export
Not just item types. Everything in the package that points at one — which is where the dependencies are.
- ItemType
- Property
- RelationshipType
- Method
- Form
- Workflow
- Life Cycle
- ACL
- Action
- Report
- List
- SQL
- Sequence
- Server Event
How it works
Three steps, and none of them touch your instance.
- 01
Export from Aras
The package export you already make before every deployment. A folder, the XML files, or the ZIP — whichever you have to hand.
- 02
Drop it in
It is read in the browser. The import report lists every file that was skipped and every reference that could not be resolved — no silent gaps.
- 03
Read it, compare it, document it
Follow the dependencies, compare against a second state, work through the hygiene findings, and export the documentation as Markdown.
Security
Your export never leaves your machine.
No server, no database, no user account
No connection to Aras: no OData, no OAuth, no agent
Reads exports — and deliberately writes nothing back
The package export is read inside the browser and stays there. Once the page has loaded there is no further network traffic — you can verify that in your developer tools, which is the only kind of privacy claim worth anything.
Nor is there any connection to your Aras instance. The tool reads exports and writes nothing back: a badly generated package can damage a production environment, while a change list you work through by hand cannot.
You save to a JSON file, wherever you choose to put it. The browser also keeps a working copy, so a tab closed by accident costs you nothing.
The formal version, naming every third party involved, is the Datenschutzerklärung (in German).
What is in it
Built for the work, not for the demo.
- Drag & drop import: folder, XML files or a ZIP
- Import report listing every unresolved reference
- Filter by System / Custom / Draft
- Search across item types, properties and methods
- Focus mode: just the neighbourhood, depth 1–3
- Auto-layout on demand, never behind your back
- Edit item types and properties
- Life cycles: states and transitions, readable and editable
- A change log of everything you changed
- Groups, notes and your own drafts
- Export as PNG, SVG, PDF
- Documentation as Markdown, Mermaid ER, DBML
- Save as a JSON file, autosave in the browser
- Re-import keeps positions, colours and groups
Pricing
Reading is free. Producing something costs.
PLMGraph is still being built, and nothing can be bought yet. The prices below are what it will cost — they are here now so you can tell me if they are wrong.
Free works fully, today, without an account. Everything above it is visible in the editor but not yet buyable — reach for it and you get an explanation and a way to be told when it can be. No trial to start, nothing to cancel, no card anywhere.
Free
€0no account, no expiry
Reading a model is free and stays free.
- Import a package export, any size
- The whole diagram, all three kinds of edge
- Artifacts and impact analysis
- Search, filters, focus mode, auto-layout
- Life cycles, read
- Hygiene: how many findings, of which kind
- PNG export, save and open as JSON
- The test-data generator
Pro
€790per named user and year
Everything that produces a result.
- Everything in Free
- Editing: item types, properties, edges, life cycles
- Compare two states, with the risk analysis
- Check a package before importing it
- Documentation and the change log
- The itemised hygiene findings
- SVG, PDF, Mermaid ER, DBML
- Named: tied to a person, not to a machine
- On your own model, in your own company
- 30 days to try it, no card
Team
€690per seat and year, from 3
One contract, one invoice, as many people as work on the model.
- Everything in Pro, for every seat
- Three seats minimum — €2,070 a year to start
- On your own model, in your own company
- An admin invites the others and takes seats back
- Invoice and purchase order, no card
- Support within 2 working days
- Your security questionnaire answered
Consulting
€1,990per named user and year
For everyone who works on other people’s models.
- Everything in Pro
- Use in client projects, no limit on how many
- Your own name in exported documents
- No minimum — one freelancer is a customer too
- Invoice and purchase order
- Support within 2 working days
Which of the three is yours: Pro and Team cover your own Aras and your own model. The moment the model belongs to a client, it is Consulting — that is the entire difference, and it is why Consulting has no seat minimum. One freelancer is the case it exists for.
Larger arrangements: from ten seats, a site licence covering everyone at one company, several Aras instances, or a group — and free for non-commercial teaching. Write to me and say what you need.
All prices net, plus VAT. Annual licence — when it lapses you keep the version you paid for, and the free tier can always open, read and export every model you ever built. Nobody’s work is held hostage. Curious what the free tier will feel like? Open the editor with it switched on.
The example is the fastest way to see it.
A small PLM core model with Part, Document and Change Request — including a method that addresses an item type by name only. Exactly the case that breaks silently when someone renames it.
Or create an account
Not required for anything above — the editor and the free tier work without one. It is where a paid plan will arrive when there is something to buy, and how a company will hand out seats. Registering today costs nothing and buys nothing.