Overview of SysML 2.0

SysML 2.0 is a new standard developed by the Object Management Group (OMG) with input from the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE). It is a formal modeling language designed to support Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) across the systems lifecycle. PTC officially supports and endorses this advancement in MBSE practices and has been involved in the realization of SysML 2.0 from the outset, with key contributions to the initial RFP (Request for Proposal), the submission, and finalization teams. Key aspects of SysML 2.0 include:

• Improved language architecture and metamodel that simplifies and rationalizes key modeling concepts, incorporating lessons learned from SysML 1.x.
• Textual and graphical notations – Allowing users to model systems using both representations. Graphical notation provides visual representations for improved communication and understanding, textual notation provides a programmatic, executable model definition.
• Standardized REST & OSLC APIs and data exchange formats – Enabling better interoperability between digital engineering tools.
• Expanded modeling capabilities – Improving requirements, behavior, and structure modeling, with variability, analysis, and verification new for SysML 2.0
• Semantic precision – Reducing ambiguity in system representations.

SysML 2.0 is designed for a broad range of stakeholders involved in the development and management of complex systems. The primary audience includes systems engineers, who rely on precise modeling techniques to define, analyze, and validate system design models. By improving expressiveness and traceability, SysML 2.0 enables systems engineers to create more robust, complete models that better capture system behaviors, constraints, and interactions.

Software engineers also benefit from SysML 2.0, particularly as the lines between hardware and software continue to blur. The ability to integrate system models with software development frameworks and hardware design tools ensures that engineering teams can work collaboratively, reducing integration risks and improving design efficiency. Additionally, mechanical, electrical, and aerospace engineers will find SysML 2.0 useful in designing highly integrated cyber-physical systems, where interactions between mechanical, electronic, and software components must be carefully modeled and analyzed.

Beyond technical engineering roles, project managers and decision-makers can leverage SysML 2.0 to gain better visibility into system architecture, functional behavior, dependencies, risks, and development progress. Improved traceability ensures that the design decisions are well-documented and aligned with requirements, which is crucial for managing large-scale projects.

Regulatory bodies and compliance managers can also benefit from SysML 2.0’s enhanced traceability and precision. The improved ability to link requirements, models, and verification results simplifies compliance with industry standards, such as ISO 26262, DO-178C, and more.

Finally, modeling tool developers and vendors play a crucial role in the adoption of SysML 2.0. With its standardized APIs and data exchange formats, SysML 2.0 provides a more consistent framework for developing modeling tools, reducing the need for proprietary extensions and custom integrations.

Seamless collaboration and traceability

By providing better mechanisms for linking requirements, design elements, and verification results, the new standard enables more effective collaboration across disciplines. Teams can track changes more easily and ensure that system designs remain aligned with stakeholder needs and regulatory requirements. This is particularly beneficial for industries such as aerospace and defense and automotive, where compliance with strict safety and reliability standards is critical.

SysML 2.0 introduces a new meta-model that standardizes and structures system information more effectively, ensuring greater consistency and interoperability across different engineering tools. Unlike SysML 1, which relies on UML-based modeling constructs, SysML 2.0’s meta-model is purpose-built for systems engineering, allowing for a clearer separation between model definitions and their usage. This new approach enhances traceability by enabling direct cross-linking of requirements, behaviors, and structures, making it easier to track changes and assess their impact across the system lifecycle. It also facilitates model reuse and automation, allowing teams to define system elements and apply them across multiple scenarios without redundancy.

New graphical notation

SysML 2.0 introduces a revamped graphical notation that improves clarity and expressiveness while maintaining compatibility with textual representations. Unlike SysML 1, where diagram types were sometimes inconsistent and difficult to interpret, the new notation in SysML 2.0 ensures a uniform, standardized approach to system representation.

This makes it easier for multidisciplinary teams to collaborate, as they can transition smoothly between textual, graphical, and parametric views of a system. The improved graphical notation also enhances model visualization and communication, reducing ambiguity and ensuring that stakeholders can understand models with great ease.

More efficient modeling workflows

SysML 2.0 enhances modeling efficiency by supporting flexible capabilities for creating models, constructs for facilitating model reuse, standard model libraries, and automation. Engineers can utilize “definition” elements, redefinitions, subsetting, and variability to reuse system designs, reducing duplication of effort and improving consistency across products and projects. SysML 2.0 includes a set of Model Libraires that provide reusable model definitions for commonly used engineering units, quantities, and equations. The textual notation provides a rapid, easy-to-use mechanism for defining SysML 2.0 models and also allows for scripting and automation, streamlining repetitive modeling tasks and enabling more efficient workflows.

Support for full lifecycle MBSE

SysML 2.0 supports full lifecycle MBSE, from conceptual design to system validation and deployment. The improved ability to link high-level system models with detailed design and verification artifacts ensures that MBSE remains relevant throughout the development process, rather than being eliminated to early-stage system architecture. The introduction of a formal expression language to support physics-based modeling greatly enhances the power and value of model analysis, testing, and simulation.

Improved expressiveness and precision

In SysML 2.0, requirements behave as constraints that must be satisfied by the design model, increasing the richness of the model semantics. The addition of elements for modeling variability, analysis, and verification cases expands the scope of SysML 2.0, allowing more aspects of the system in focus to be modeled.

The introduction of a textual modeling language allows for greater clarity in defining system architectures, behaviors, and constraints. This reduces ambiguity and ensures that models accurately represent the intended system design. The ability to use both textual and graphical representations provides engineers with more flexibility in how they develop and communicate system models.

Enhanced interoperability

SysML 2.0 replaces XMI data exchange with standardized REST & OSLC APIs, making it easier to integrate with other digital engineering tools such as simulation software, requirements management systems, and product lifecycle management (PLM) platforms. This reduces the need for custom tool integrations and allows organizations to adopt a more modular toolchain.

With the advent of SysML 2.0, PTC has extended its MBSE solution, PTC Modeler, to become the first solution vendor to provide support for this emerging industry standard.

PTC Modeler adds SysML 2.0 to its existing SysML 1, UML, OVM, UPDM and UAF modeling language implementations. PTC Modeler’s next-generation SysML 2.0 capabilities enable you to easily create, view and manage system models, capturing requirements, use cases and functions, logical structure elements, behavior actions and states, analysis and verification cases as well as key interfaces and relationships. PTC Modeler provides an optimized user experience with extensive use of drag-and-drop, ensuring modeling is quick and intuitive.

These features are complemented by easy-to-use model and structure browsers, and usability aids such as package/diagram filters that allow you to control what items are visible or hidden. PTC Modeler also provides efficient modeling and reuse through the application of SysML 2.0 language constructs such as definition, usages, redefinitions and subclassification. You can accelerate the adoption of SysML and jump-start initial model development using the provided template models, example models, and SysML 2.0 Model Libraries.

SysML 2.0 models utilize many existing features in PTC Modeler, including multi-user concurrent modeling, secure model storage in a SQL Server database, integrated configuration management (versioning, branch, merge), metamodel extension, and automated model review using Reviewer.

PTC Modeler allows you to use UML and SysML 1 alongside SysML 2.0 in the same model, ensuring system and software development are connected and integrated, as well providing the ability to migrate SysML 1 models incrementally to SysML 2.0. PTC Modeler’s powerful orthogonal variability modeling (OVM) features can be applied to SysML 2.0 models so you can easily define and manage product lines and variant product models.

PTC Modeler also provides out-of-the-box integrations with Codebeamer, Windchill PLM and several other PTC and third-party engineering applications to ensure your SysML 2.0 designs can be linked to the wider digital engineering thread to capture traceability and dependencies with requirements and PLM parts.

Soon, PTC Modeler will provide capabilities for modeling with the textual notation, starting with an importer utility that will read .sysml files and automatically create SysML 2.0 models. Following on will be an exporter tool, as well as mixed-model modeling that enables you to author models with either the graphical or textual notation simultaneously.

PTC Modeler’s existing APIs (REST, OSLC, Automation Interface) support access to SysML 2.0 models and can be used to build custom integrations today. In the future, PTC will provide a new API compliant with the SysML 2.0 standard.

Transitioning from SysML 1 to SysML 2.0 requires careful planning, training, and tool adaptation. While SysML 2.0 introduces major improvements, organizations must consider compatibility with existing models, workflows, and tools. A phased approach can help ensure a smooth transition.

Assessing current SysML 1 usage

The first step in transitioning to SysML 2.0 is assessing how SysML 1 is currently used within an organization. This involves identifying existing models, dependencies, and workflows that rely on SysML 1. Since SysML 2.0 introduces a more structured and expressive modeling framework, teams must evaluate whether their current models can be directly migrated or if modifications are necessary to fully leverage the new features. Additionally, organizations should review their toolchains to determine whether their current modeling tools support SysML 2.0 or if new tools need to be adopted. Understanding the scope of the transition helps minimize disruption and ensures that critical system models remain functional throughout the migration process.

Adopting a hybrid approach

A gradual transition is often the most practical approach, especially for organizations with large, established SysML 1 models. Rather than converting all existing models at once, teams can start by using SysML 2.0 for new projects while maintaining SysML 1 for existing systems. This hybrid approach allows organizations to gain familiarity with SysML 2.0’s new syntax and capabilities without disrupting ongoing projects. Additionally, running both versions in parallel enables engineers to compare modeling approaches and refine best practices before fully committing to the new standard. Over time, as teams become more comfortable with SysML 2.0, they can begin converting existing models to the new format. PTC Modeler supports this incremental migration approach by allowing SysML 1 and 2 elements to co-exist in the same model, so sub-systems or modules can be converted where needed and at a pace that suits your organization.

Leveraging automated conversion tools

To facilitate migration, many tool vendors are developing automated conversion tools that help translate SysML 1 models into SysML 2.0. These tools can accelerate the transition by automatically mapping SysML 1 elements to their SysML 2.0 equivalents, reducing the need for manual rework. However, while automated tools can handle basic model conversions, they may not fully capture more complex system behaviors, requiring additional manual refinement. Organizations should carefully validate converted models to ensure accuracy and consistency with the original design intent. Additionally, teams should document any challenges encountered during conversion to refine their transition strategy and avoid potential pitfalls in future migrations. PTC works with our consulting partners to provide bespoke migration tools on request.

Training and skill development

One of the most critical aspects of transitioning to SysML 2.0 is ensuring that engineers and stakeholders receive proper training on the new language. While SysML 2.0 builds upon many of the same concepts as SysML 1, its textual modeling syntax, enhanced expressiveness, and new modeling paradigms require engineers to adjust to new working practices and new tools. Investing in training programs, workshops, and certification courses can help teams develop the necessary skills to effectively use SysML 2.0. Additionally, organizations should encourage hands-on practice by applying SysML 2.0 to small pilot projects before scaling up to larger, more complex systems. Establishing internal best practices and guidelines can also help standardize SysML 2.0 adoption across teams, ensuring consistency in modeling approaches.

Integrating SysML 2.0 into existing workflows

To maximize the benefits of SysML 2.0, organizations should integrate it into their existing engineering workflows, ensuring seamless interoperability with tools used for simulation, requirements management, and product lifecycle management (PLM). Since SysML 2.0 provides standardized REST & OSLC APIs, teams should explore how these capabilities can enhance collaboration and automation within their toolchains.

Integrating SysML 2.0 with digital twin frameworks enhances real-time monitoring, simulation, and predictive analytics across the system lifecycle. By leveraging SysML 2.0 in digital twin ecosystems, organizations can achieve a more holistic, model-based approach to systems engineering, bridging the gap between conceptual design and operational reality.

SysML 2.0 can also be integrated with requirements management tools, PLM systems, and model-based verification processes to help organizations improve traceability, validation, and system optimization throughout the development lifecycle.

Managing risks and ensuring a smooth transtion

There are significant benefits in moving to SysML 2.0 but like any major process change, transitioning to SysML 2.0 comes with risks that must be carefully managed. One of the biggest challenges is ensuring compatibility with legacy systems, as many organizations have extensive SysML 1 models embedded in their workflows. To mitigate this risk, teams should evaluate whether critical models need to remain in SysML 1 for the foreseeable future and establish strategies for maintaining interoperability between the two versions. Additionally, the learning curve associated with SysML 2.0 should not be underestimated. Providing ongoing support, mentorship, and training will help engineers and stakeholders adapt more quickly. Organizations should also stay informed about the maturity of SysML 2.0 tools, selecting those that are stable and well-supported by vendors. Finally, regularly reviewing progress and gathering feedback from teams using SysML 2.0 will allow organizations to refine their transition strategy and ensure long-term success.

By carefully planning and executing a structured transition, organizations can fully harness the power of SysML 2.0 while minimizing disruption to existing projects. The shift to SysML 2.0 represents a significant step forward in Model-Based Systems Engineering, enabling greater precision, efficiency, and collaboration across engineering disciplines.

SysML 2.0 is a general-purpose modeling language developed to facilitate a model-based systems engineering approach. It refines the concepts of its predecessor, SysML 1.x, by improving and enhancing its notational syntax. The updated version offers variations, quantities, and units, along with complex statements and expressions and through both textual and graphical notations. These enhancements aim to reduce ambiguity and provide improved modeling aids to systems engineers.

PTC’s integration of SysML 2.0 into its modeling solutions, particularly through PTC Modeler, demonstrates its commitment to advancing MBSE practices. By embracing the enhancements of SysML 2.0, PTC provides systems engineers with powerful tools to design, analyze, and manage complex systems effectively.

This whitepaper was authored with contributions from Hedley Apperly, VP of ALM Products at PTC, and Patrick Ollerton, Senior Principal Product Manager at PTC.