# Extracting Connections with Automator

**URL:** <https://forum.sensmetry.com/t/extracting-connections-with-automator/404>\
**Category:** How-to Guides\
**Tags:** automator\
**Created:** [February 27, 2026, 11:36am UTC](https://forum.sensmetry.com/t/extracting-connections-with-automator/404 "2026-02-27T11:36:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![TomBaker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47c2d/32.png) [@TomBaker](https://forum.sensmetry.com/u/TomBaker)\
**Post date:** [February 27, 2026, 11:36am UTC](https://forum.sensmetry.com/t/extracting-connections-with-automator/404/1 "2026-02-27T11:36:22Z")

</div>

Hello, I’m trying to extract connections from the model and I’m wondering if there is a convenient method to do?

Here’s an example model in its textual and graphical form (I hope it’s modeled correctly). What I would like to extract from the model is the following information:

- C connected to A
- C connected to B
- C connected to D
- C connected to E

What’s the best approach to do that?

Thanks!

Tom

```auto
 package InterfaceExample {

    port def MyPort;
    part def A { port p:MyPort; }
    part def B { port p:MyPort; }
    part def C { port p1:MyPort; port p2:MyPort;}
    part def D { port p:MyPort; }
    part def E { port p:MyPort; }

    part def SubsystemA {
        part a : A;
        part b : B;
        port p : MyPort;

        binding bind p = a.p;
        binding bind p = b.p;
    }

    part def SubsystemB {
        part c : C;
        part d : D;
        part e : E;

        port p : MyPort;

        binding bind c.p1 = p;
        interface connect c.p2 to d.p;
        interface connect c.p2 to e.p;
    }

    part def System {
        part sa : SubsystemA;
        part sb : SubsystemB;

        interface connect sb.p to sa.p;
    }
}

```

 ![{9124A7A8-7BA4-4BC0-BF10-F65EAA3EDC49}](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex008/uploads/syside/original/1X/f1aaec72641964d8f7f4944ff66be10c361e091d.png)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Daumantas](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex008/user_avatar/forum.sensmetry.com/daumantas/32/19_2.png) [@Daumantas](https://forum.sensmetry.com/u/Daumantas)\
**Post date:** [February 27, 2026, 11:55am UTC](https://forum.sensmetry.com/t/extracting-connections-with-automator/404/2 "2026-02-27T11:55:30Z")

</div>

Hi,

The easiest, and likely most performant, approach to find elements of specific type is to use [Model.nodes](https://docs.sensmetry.com/python/latest/syside/BaseModel.html#syside.BaseModel.nodes) (or [Document.nodes](https://docs.sensmetry.com/python/latest/syside/Document.html#syside.Document.nodes)/[Document.all\_nodes](https://docs.sensmetry.com/python/latest/syside/Document.html#syside.Document.all_nodes)):

```py
import syside

SRC = """\
package InterfaceExample {

    port def MyPort;
    part def A { port p:MyPort; }
    part def B { port p:MyPort; }
    part def C { port p1:MyPort; port p2:MyPort;}
    part def D { port p:MyPort; }
    part def E { port p:MyPort; }

    part def SubsystemA {
        part a : A;
        part b : B;
        port p : MyPort;

        binding bind p = a.p;
        binding bind p = b.p;
    }

    part def SubsystemB {
        part c : C;
        part d : D;
        part e : E;

        port p : MyPort;

        binding bind c.p1 = p;
        interface connect c.p2 to d.p;
        interface connect c.p2 to e.p;
    }

    part def System {
        part sa : SubsystemA;
        part sb : SubsystemB;

        interface connect sb.p to sa.p;
    }
}
"""

model, _ = syside.load_model(sysml_source=SRC)

for connector in model.elements(syside.ConnectorAsUsage, include_subtypes=True):
    ends = connector.related_elements.collect()

    # unwrap feature chainings with `feature_target`
    print(f"{ends[0].feature_target} -> {ends[1].feature_target}")

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![TomBaker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47c2d/32.png) [@TomBaker](https://forum.sensmetry.com/u/TomBaker)\
**Post date:** [February 27, 2026, 12:29pm UTC](https://forum.sensmetry.com/t/extracting-connections-with-automator/404/3 "2026-02-27T12:29:23Z")

</div>

Thanks! That’s really easy this way.

If I change the last line of your script to:

`print(f"{ends[0].feature_target.owner.name} --{connector.cst_node.type}--> {ends[1].feature_target.owner.name}")`

I get the following output (which is nearly what I’m looking for):

C `--InterfaceUsage–> D`  
`C --InterfaceUsage–> E`  
`SubsystemB --InterfaceUsage–> SubsystemA`  
`SubsystemA --BindingConnectorAsUsage–> A`  
`SubsystemA --BindingConnectorAsUsage–> B`  
`C --BindingConnectorAsUsage–> SubsystemB`

Is there an easy way to “remove” the binding connector usages and the “inbetween” interfaces? The logic I’m thinking of is:

`C --BindingConnectorAsUsage–> SubsystemB --InterfaceUsage–> SubsystemA --BindingConnectorAsUsage–> A = C → A`

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Daumantas](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex008/user_avatar/forum.sensmetry.com/daumantas/32/19_2.png) [@Daumantas](https://forum.sensmetry.com/u/Daumantas)\
**Post date:** [February 27, 2026, 12:48pm UTC](https://forum.sensmetry.com/t/extracting-connections-with-automator/404/4 "2026-02-27T12:48:44Z")

</div>

No built-in way, you will need to record the links as you go, and then assemble them the way you want:

```py
links: dict[syside.Element, list[tuple[syside.ConnectorAsUsage, syside.Element]]] = {}

for ...:
    links.setdefault(ends[0].feature_target, []).append(
        (connector, ends[1].feature_target)
    )

```

Then you can start at some element, and continue following links.

PS. Not all elements have `cst_node`, e.g. implicit elements inserted during semantic resolution. To get the type name it is better to use `type(element). __name__ ` which works on all elements.