Parts of an asset

While asset nodes themselves do not appear in the scene view, they do appear in many editors. Additionally, if you select an object encapsulated by an asset in the scene view, the asset is displayed in the Attribute Editor / Channel Box along with their published attributes. For more information on published attributes, see Published Attributes and Nodes.

Assets appear in the Hypergraph Connections editor as nodes with beveled edges. If you expand one of these nodes you can see a number of parts:

Encapsulated Nodes	The nodes that appear in the translucent area are the nodes encapsulated by the asset. Each node in your scene can only be placed in a single asset, unless the assets are nested.
Unpublished Attribute Connections	Display incoming and outgoing connections to/from unpublished attributes from/to other nodes. When you lock unpublished attributes, unpublished attribute connections can no longer be made or broken.
Published Attributes	Represent internal node attributes that have been published to the asset's interface and are useful for displaying a subset of the internal nodes' attributes in one place. By default, these connections are invisible. You can display them by turning on Options > Show Relationship Connections and turning off Options > Merge Connections, both in the Hypergraph Connections editor. One connection for each published attribute then appears from the attribute's internal node to the asset border.
Published Attribute Connections	Display a connection from a published attribute to an external node. Published attribute connections can be differentiated from unpublished attribute connections from the square on the connection line. When a published attribute is connected to a published attribute on another asset, a square appears at each end. When a published attribute is part of a number of connections which have been merged, the square appears solid if all the merged connections are published, and hollow otherwise. Note When transferring connections from one asset to another with the Transfer Attribute Values option, only the published attribute connections are transferred. Note When referencing an asset, published attribute connections are saved with respect to their published attribute names, not their internal node names.