The aim of this paper is to present a generic component framework for system modeling which is especially useful for a large class of graph- and net-based modeling techniques. Moreover, the framework is also flexible with respect to a hierarchical connection of components, providing a compositional semantics of components. This means more precisely that the semantics and internal correctness of a system can be inferred from the semantics of its components. In contrast to constructorbased component concepts for data type specification techniques, our component framework is based on a generic notion of transformations. Re.nements and transformations are used to express intradependencies, between the export interface and the body of a component, and interdependencies, between the import and the export interfaces of different components. This is shown by a small case study on modeling Java threads by high-level Petri nets in this paper.