A large number of objects, such as objects representing beams and columns in an object-oriented enterprise engineering system, may be geometrically transformed in a model database by dividing the objects according to criteria into a number of ordered partitions and transforming the objects in each partition as an atomic operation. Objects that are to be transformed are organized into the ordered partitions, and the partitions are transformed in sequential order, such that all predecessors of a given object are transformed before, or in the same operation as, the given object. If a large transformation operation abnormally terminates before all the small transformation operations have been completed, the model database is, nevertheless, left in a consistent state. The transformation operation may be resumed from the point of interruption. Furthermore, the number of objects that may be transformed is not constrained by the amount of memory available in the system.