This invention provides a graphical tool by which a person may quickly and efficiently check the relational information between elements of a computer model. The invention may be used to quickly validate the design rules, like minimum spacing requirements between the connections (or nets) in a schematic that exists in a computer aided design package. Since a designer must enter such design rules for each net, the invention first imports these design rules from the computer model and then imports a standard set of design rules. After comparing both the sets of design rules, the invention presents a graphical display (a matrix) to a user indicating where the model rules matched the standard set and, correspondingly, where they did not match.