Altus user guide

Altus is an enterprise architecture repository. You describe your organisation from its vision and strategy down to applications, technology and locations, link the pieces together, and then see what depends on what.

Signing in

Open the address your administrator gave you and sign in with your username and password.

• The first time, you sign in with a temporary password and then choose your own, of at least 12 characters.
• After 10 wrong passwords in a row your username is locked for 15 minutes. An administrator can lift the lock by resetting your password.
• After 8 hours without activity you are signed out.
• To change your password or sign out, click your name at the top right.

The screen

• Top bar: Explorer, Architecture views, Impact analysis and Matrix, the four places where you work; Help opens this guide; your name opens your menu.
• Left panel: the repository as a folding tree: layer, then object type (with the number of objects), then the objects. Click an object to open it. Below the tree: modelling, data, metamodel and (for administrators) administration screens. The version of Altus is at the bottom.
• The coloured bar beside each layer and type is the layer's colour from the metamodel.
• Light or dark: Altus follows your computer's setting. To choose, click your name at the top right, then Light, Dark or Automatic. In dark mode the layer colours are drawn a little lighter so they stay easy to read; exported views are always light.

Who can do what

Buttons your role may not use are not shown.

Finding things

• Left panel: open a layer, then a type, to see its objects. Types with many objects show the first 50, with Show more and a filter.
• Start object box: wherever Altus needs an object (Explorer, views, impact, linking), type part of a name, key or external ID; or click the empty box and browse by type.
• Every object has a key (e.g. VIS-0001) that never changes, even when the object is renamed.

Architecture views

A view draws a slice of the repository: pick one or more start objects, a direction (up, down or both) and a depth, and Altus draws the objects in bands, one per layer, top-down.

• Click an object to select it; use its ▲ / ▼ pills, or Expand up / down / both, to grow the view from it; Collapse and Remove from view to shrink it.
• Drag objects sideways within their band to tidy the picture.
• Export PNG (a picture), Export SVG (sharp at any size, for PowerPoint, Word or Visio) or Export PDF (opens the print window: choose Save as PDF).

Impact analysis

Answers two questions about any object:

• Upward: what is affected if it fails? For a server, for example: the applications on it, the services they support, the business processes and capabilities, up to the strategy.
• Downward (trace down): what does it rely on? How it is realised, all the way down.

Choose the start object, the direction and the depth (in layers), then Run. Each result shows how many links away it is (hops) and the path. Related, not impacted lists objects that are linked but which a failure does not reach, with the reason. Show as view draws the result; Export CSV saves it for Excel. Each relationship rule in the metamodel says how a failure spreads along it.

Matrix

Shows one relationship rule as a grid: one object type across, the other down, a tick where two objects are linked. Filters narrow the rows and columns; Export CSV gives the whole grid for Excel.

Exports

• Exported views carry a footer with Altus, your organisation's name and the date. They are always drawn on white, also when you work in dark mode, so they fit documents and print.
• Exported files are named altus-<what>-<date>, e.g. altus-impact-TN-0001-2026-10-17.csv.
• CSV files open in Excel. A value that Excel could take for a formula is written with a ' in front, so it shows as text; importing the file again removes it.

Building top-down (Architects)

The Explorer is where you build the architecture, from the top of a breakdown downward.

1. Choose a start object (or a type, to see all its objects), or click + New object.
2. Select an object in the tree. Under + Add below, Altus offers exactly the steps the metamodel allows: Create new makes the object and links it in one go; Link existing reuses an object you already have.
3. Link above and Other links connect the object to the rest of the network.

• An object used in several places is shown once in full and marked also used elsewhere.
• A ⚠ marks an object that is still missing a link it should have. This is only a warning: you can build step by step.
• Links that break a rule (a pair with no rule, too many links, a loop in a breakdown) are refused, with the reason.

Objects and links (Architects)

• Open an object to edit it. Fields marked * are required.
• Some links show as fields on the form (the metamodel decides which): pick existing objects, or create one with + new.
• + Create relationship (left panel) links any two objects; Altus finds the rule or tells you there is none.
• An object that is still linked cannot be deleted; Altus names what is in the way.
• Every object has a History list: each change to it and its links, by whom and when.

Linking in the Matrix (Architects)

In the Matrix, a click on a cell links or unlinks the two objects at once, with every rule applied. Where a side may have only one link, Altus asks before moving it. Undo last change reverses the last click.

CSV import (Architects)

1. Left panel → Import / export (CSV). Export a type first: the file is also the template.
2. Edit it in Excel. A row with an empty Key adds a new object; a row with a Key updates that object.
3. Import it, first with Check only to see what would happen without saving anything.

Relationships have their own file (Source Key, Relationship, Target Key).

Saving views (Architects)

Give the view a name and click Save; Open saved view… brings it back for everyone. Viewers can build and export views but not save them.

Users (Administrators)

Administration → Users lists who can sign in.

• Add user: username, full name and role. Altus shows a temporary password once: pass it on personally. At first sign-in the person chooses their own.
• Change role, Reset password (also lifts a lock) and Switch off / on. Users are never deleted, so names in the history stay right.
• The last active Administrator cannot be switched off.
• Forgotten the only administrator password? Someone with access to the server runs npm run reset-password <username>.

The metamodel and its lock (Administrators)

Metamodel → Metamodel designer shows the layers, object types, fields and relationship rules. The metamodel is locked by default, so nobody changes it by accident; modelling is never affected by the lock.

• Unlock to edit: add or rename layers, types, fields and rules; change a rule's settings (how many links, top-down step, how impact spreads). A banner shows while editing is on. Lock again when done.
• Changes that would damage existing data are refused, naming what is in the way. Nothing is ever removed: it is retired, with a preview first.
• Export / import metamodel moves a metamodel as one file (import only into an empty repository).

Branding (Administrators)

Administration → Branding sets your organisation's name and logo (PNG, JPG or SVG, up to 200 KB). They show beside Altus on the top bar, on the sign-in page and on exported views.

Branding comes with Professional (see Editions). In the free Practitioner edition a name and logo set earlier are kept, not shown, and return when a licence is loaded.

Licence (Administrators)

Administration → Licence shows which edition this installation runs, who it is licensed to, until when, and how much of each limit is in use (architect seats, Viewers, objects).

• Load licence file: choose the .altuslicence file your vendor sent. Altus checks it on the spot, without contacting anyone, and it takes effect at once. A file that was changed in any way is refused; the current licence stays.
• Remove licence returns to the free Practitioner edition. Nothing is deleted.
• From 30 days before a licence ends, Administrators see a notice at the top of the screen. A Professional licence then has 30 days' grace in which everything keeps working; an Evaluation licence has none.
• The licence is not tied to the computer: moving Altus to another server, upgrading it or restoring a backup keeps it. Loading and removing are in the change history.

Change history

Metamodel → Change history lists every change: to the metamodel, objects, links, users and settings, with who made it, when, and the values before and after. Filter by kind, person, dates or an object's name; Export CSV saves what matches. The history can never be changed or deleted.

Editions

Without a licence Altus is the free Practitioner edition, with no time limit. An Evaluation licence is Professional until a set date, for trying Altus on real-sized data. Enterprise, for teams (company sign-in, approvals and more), is coming. The edition shows at the bottom of the left panel.

Limits only stop adding more: when a limit is reached, or a licence ends, everything you have stays, and viewing, editing, linking, exports and backups keep working. An import that would go over the object limit is refused as a whole, and Check only tells you in advance. For an Evaluation licence, write to the person who gave you Altus.

Browsers and limits

• Supported: current Chrome, Edge and Firefox on Windows, on laptop and desktop screens (1366 × 768 or larger).
• Not yet supported: Safari on a Mac, phones and tablets.
• When two people edit the same object at the same time, the last save wins; the history shows both.
• A view shows up to 300 objects; an impact analysis up to 2,000 objects per direction. Altus says so when a limit is reached.

The trial