.. _New_ImportClassonomyFromFile:

New > Import Classonomy from File
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

This feature is available from the global :ref:`NewButton` and is designed to handle large OWL
ontologies that contain thousands of classes but no instances.
This is a pattern that is often used in biopharmaceutical ontologies such as those from BioPortal.

TopBraid has been designed under the assumption that classes describe groups of similar instances
and that there are far more instances than classes.
Some key algorithms such as the GraphQL engine assume that the (class) schema is smaller than the instance graphs.

The Classonomy importer converts OWL classes into SKOS taxonomy instances, which is arguably more useful anyway.
The OWL class axioms will be preserved during the conversion, in case you still want to query them.


**See Also**

* :ref:`New_ImportOntologyFromRDFSOWLFile`

**Further Reading on New Button**

* :ref:`ext_graph_constructors`

**Further Reading on TopBraid**

* :ref:`introduction`