[maxmsp] managing multiple patches

i am new forgive me for that.

i have been working with oscillator, sampler, sequencer and various patches.  i had a dream where all of these elements were in one place for a piece.  should i be looking to make one big patch? 

 how can i arrange the various components where i can have access to all of them at once for a particular piece?

if you open a folder, and you had four of five different patches in there, you open each, how do you connect them and move data around?
or do you arrange in one big patch and use sub-patches.

sorry if the question is kinda spotty, i'm trying to visualize the end result and it's not exactly clear.

thank you in advance.

danny barnes
--
My smile is stuck I cannot go back to your frownland.
     Captain Beefheart