1. A method for simplifying the presentation of a visually complex semantic model comprising: receiving a user-selected command to simplify a presentation of a visually complex semantic model by a model simplification tool from a graphical modeling application, wherein the visually complex semantic model comprises a plurality of object representations and a plurality of associations between said plurality of object representations, wherein said plurality of object representations and said plurality of associations impair a user-defined level of usability; determining an association status for each object representation in the visually complex semantic model according to a plurality of simplification rules, wherein the association status indicates a level of association for an object representation, and, wherein the association status designates the object representation as at least one of an autonomous object, a containment object, and a subordinate object; and transforming the presentation of the visually complex semantic model using the association status of each object representation, wherein subordinate objects are nested within containment objects to produce a simplified semantic model, wherein the simplified semantic model is able to be rendered within a presentation area of the graphical modeling application.