To make creating the diagrams for phases easier, Component Identifier is a special field that identifies the blocks that are the same across the phases in the phase diagram. When you insert a block in a diagram, it is assigned a component identifier. You can view the component identifier that is assigned on the General page in the block’s Calculation Properties window. For more information, see General Page.

The format for the component identifier is specified by RBD Block Component Identifier, which appears under Identifiers in the System file properties. It is initially set to BC1. For more information, see Identifiers System File Properties.

While a component identifier cannot be blank, you can change a component identifier to any value you like. For example, you might want to assign a subsystem or assembly name as a block’s component identifier to make it much easier to identify this block across diagrams in different phases. When you assign the component identifier for one block in a diagram to a block in a different diagram, during phase diagram calculations, they are recognized as the same blocks in different phases.

For example, if a block in the diagram linked to Phase 2 is assigned the same component identifier as a block in the diagram linked to Phase 1, these two blocks are recognized as the same component operating in two different mission phases. For more information, see Indicating the Same Block in Different Phases.

If you copy and paste blocks in diagrams, component identifiers are assigned to the pasted blocks as follows:

If two or more blocks in the same diagram have the same component identifier, when phase diagram calculations are run, phase calculations cannot be completed, and an error is shown, indicating this.

Prior to running phase calculations, you can verify the RBD data to see if the same component identifier is assigned to more than one block in a diagram. For more information, see Verifying RBD Data.