1. An apparatus to design a physical system of components, the design of the physical system including modifiable design data that, when compliant with established design criteria, describe a realization of the physical system, the apparatus comprising: a database to store the design data defining physical structure of each of the components and defining a physical topology specifying a location in the physical system of each of the components, the database further to store a plurality of predefined topology templates, each defining a schematic topology specifying relative locations of graphical representations of the components in a schematic data abstraction of the design data; a user interface to accept design instructions from a user including a selection of a topology template from the predefined topology templates; and a processor executing to generate a logical topology by mapping the location of each component in the physical topology to a location of the graphical representation of the corresponding one of the components in the schematic topology, and rearranging one or more of the physical topology components according to the selected topology template; the processor further executing to store the mapped locations of each of the components in the design data; the logical topology defining an interconnection of the components, having a relative placement of components different from a relative placement of the components in the physical topology, and including a mixture of representations for the components in schematic and physical topology forms.