Create subclasses

Making a class a subclass of another class means that all members of the child class, also belong to a parent class. Subclasses can be specified in a number of ways.

When you know at the creation time the parent of a new class:

• Click on the parent class in the Classes View, then click on the icon or select Create subclass option from the context menu. Create a new class. It will be defined as a subclass of the class you have clicked on before invoking create.

When you need to add or change a parent class after the child class has been created:

• Click on the child class in the Classes View and drag and drop it under the parent class.
• Select the child class in the Classes View so that it appears in the Resource Editor. Add a parent class under the rdfs:subClassOf widget in the Class Axioms section of the Class Form. This approach is especially useful when a class has multiple parents. Adding parent classes in the Class Form can be done in the following ways:
• Click on the parent class in the Classes View then drag and drop it over the rdfs:subClassOf widget in the child's Class Form.
• Click on the down facing triangle next to the rdfs:subClassOf widget in the Class Form to invoke a menu. Select the Add empty row option. Either drop and drop the parent class in to the empty row or simply type the parent class name.
• Click on the down facing triangle next to the rdfs:subClassOf widget in the Class Form to invoke a menu. Select the Add existing... option. Select the parent class from the resulting dialog.
• Click on the down facing triangle next to the rdfs:subClassOf widget in the Class Form to invoke a menu. Select the Create and add... option. Create a new parent class in the resulting dialog.
• Click on the down facing triangle next to the rdfs:subClassOf widget in the Class Form to invoke a menu. Select the Create and add nested... option. Create a new parent class in the resulting dialog. When the parent class is created, a nested form will be shown, where you could see and modify further details of the class.

To remove the parent class, simply remove the class name from the row under the rdfs:subClassOf property and press Enter or OK. Or click on the down facing triangle next to the row and select the Delete option.