diff --git a/tools/xslt/common-binding.xsl b/tools/xslt/common-binding.xsl
index 7c977a3b..8537b4f2 100644
--- a/tools/xslt/common-binding.xsl
+++ b/tools/xslt/common-binding.xsl
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@
                 xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
                 xmlns:vo-dml="http://www.ivoa.net/xml/VODML/v1">
 
+<!-- this stylesheet requires that binding files have been read in -->
 <xsl:include href="common.xsl"/>
 <xsl:include href="common-structure-functions.xsl"/>
 
diff --git a/tools/xslt/common-structure-functions.xsl b/tools/xslt/common-structure-functions.xsl
index 942e9795..66279877 100644
--- a/tools/xslt/common-structure-functions.xsl
+++ b/tools/xslt/common-structure-functions.xsl
@@ -10,16 +10,7 @@ note - only define functions in here as it is included in the schematron rules
                 xmlns:vo-dml="http://www.ivoa.net/xml/VODML/v1">
     <xsl:key name="ellookup" match="//*[vodml-id]" use="concat(ancestor::vo-dml:model/name,':',vodml-id)"/>
 
-    <!-- this function does not rely on vodml-id being present -->
-    <xsl:function name="vf:asvodmlref" as="xsd:string">
-        <xsl:param name="el" as="element()"/>
-        <xsl:value-of select="concat($el/ancestor::vo-dml:model/name,':',string-join($el/ancestor-or-self::*/name[not(../name() = 'vo-dml:model')], '.'))"/>
-    </xsl:function>
-
-    <xsl:function name="vf:nameFromVodmlref" as="xsd:string">
-        <xsl:param name="vodml-ref" as="xsd:string"/>
-        <xsl:value-of select="tokenize($vodml-ref,'[\.:]')[last()]"/>
-    </xsl:function>
+    <xsl:include href="common_functions.xsl"/>
 
     <!-- does the vodml-ref exist? -->
     <xsl:function name="vf:vo-dml-ref-exists" as="xsd:boolean">
diff --git a/tools/xslt/common.xsl b/tools/xslt/common.xsl
index 518f0c7d..49fcd4ca 100644
--- a/tools/xslt/common.xsl
+++ b/tools/xslt/common.xsl
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@
 >
 
 <!-- 
-  This XSLT script contains common xsl:templates used by other XSLT scripts.
+  This XSLT script contains common  templates that depend only on a single instance of a VO-DML file being in scope.
 -->
 
   <xsl:variable name="cr">
@@ -26,21 +26,6 @@
   <xsl:variable name='lt'><xsl:text disable-output-escaping="yes">&lt;</xsl:text></xsl:variable>
   <xsl:variable name='gt'><xsl:text disable-output-escaping="yes">&gt;</xsl:text></xsl:variable>
 
-
-  <xsl:function name="vf:upperFirst" as="xsd:string">
-    <xsl:param name="s" as="xsd:string"/>
-    <xsl:value-of select="concat(upper-case(substring($s,1,1)),substring($s,2))"/>
-  </xsl:function>
-  <xsl:function name="vf:lowerFirst" as="xsd:string">
-    <xsl:param name="s" as="xsd:string"/>
-    <xsl:value-of select="concat(lower-case(substring($s,1,1)),substring($s,2))"/>
-  </xsl:function>
-
-  <xsl:function name="vf:capitalize">
-    <xsl:param name="name"/>
-    <xsl:value-of select="concat(upper-case(substring($name,1,1)),substring($name,2))"/>
-  </xsl:function>
-
   <!-- templates -->
   <xsl:template name="upperFirst">
     <xsl:param name="val"/>
@@ -220,17 +205,5 @@
     </xsl:call-template>
   </xsl:template>
 
-  <xsl:function name="vf:multiplicityAsSymbol">
-    <xsl:param name="m" as="element()"/>
-    <xsl:choose>
-      <xsl:when test="not($m/@minOccurs) and not($m/@maxOccurs)"><!-- do nothing --></xsl:when>
-      <xsl:when test="number($m/@minOccurs) eq 1 and number($m/@maxOccurs) eq 1"><!-- do nothing --></xsl:when>
-      <xsl:when test="number($m/@minOccurs) eq 0 and (number($m/@maxOccurs) eq 1 or not($m/@maxOccurs))">0..1</xsl:when>
-      <xsl:when test="number($m/@minOccurs) eq 0 and $m/@maxOccurs='unbounded'">0..*</xsl:when>
-      <xsl:when test="(not($m/@minOccurs) or number($m/@minOccurs) eq 1) and $m/@maxOccurs='unbounded'">1..*</xsl:when>
-      <xsl:when test="not($m/@minOccurs) and $m/@maxOccurs"><xsl:value-of select="concat('1..', $m/@maxOccurs)"/></xsl:when>
-      <xsl:when test="not($m/@maxOccurs) and $m/@minOccurs"><xsl:value-of select="concat($m/@maxOccurs,'..', $m/@maxOccurs)"/></xsl:when> <!-- this is probably illegal xsd, but just in case -->
-      <xsl:otherwise><xsl:value-of select="concat($m/@minOccurs,'..', $m/@maxOccurs)"/></xsl:otherwise>
-    </xsl:choose>
-  </xsl:function>
+
 </xsl:stylesheet>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/tools/xslt/common_functions.xsl b/tools/xslt/common_functions.xsl
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..568b1036
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/xslt/common_functions.xsl
@@ -0,0 +1,57 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+
+<xsl:stylesheet version="3.0"
+                xmlns:xmi="http://schema.omg.org/spec/XMI/2.1"
+                xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
+                xmlns:uml="http://schema.omg.org/spec/UML/2.0"
+                xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
+                xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
+                xmlns:vo-dml="http://www.ivoa.net/xml/VODML/v1"
+                xmlns:vf="http://www.ivoa.net/xml/VODML/functions"
+
+>
+
+    <!--
+    This XSLT script contains common  functions that depend only on a single instance of a VO-DML file being in scope.
+    -->
+
+    <!-- this function does not rely on vodml-id being present -->
+    <xsl:function name="vf:asvodmlref" as="xsd:string">
+        <xsl:param name="el" as="element()"/>
+        <xsl:value-of select="concat($el/ancestor::vo-dml:model/name,':',string-join($el/ancestor-or-self::*/name[not(../name() = 'vo-dml:model')], '.'))"/>
+    </xsl:function>
+
+    <xsl:function name="vf:nameFromVodmlref" as="xsd:string">
+        <xsl:param name="vodml-ref" as="xsd:string"/>
+        <xsl:value-of select="tokenize($vodml-ref,'[\.:]')[last()]"/>
+    </xsl:function>
+
+    <xsl:function name="vf:upperFirst" as="xsd:string">
+        <xsl:param name="s" as="xsd:string"/>
+        <xsl:value-of select="concat(upper-case(substring($s,1,1)),substring($s,2))"/>
+    </xsl:function>
+    <xsl:function name="vf:lowerFirst" as="xsd:string">
+        <xsl:param name="s" as="xsd:string"/>
+        <xsl:value-of select="concat(lower-case(substring($s,1,1)),substring($s,2))"/>
+    </xsl:function>
+
+    <xsl:function name="vf:capitalize">
+        <xsl:param name="name"/>
+        <xsl:value-of select="concat(upper-case(substring($name,1,1)),substring($name,2))"/>
+    </xsl:function>
+
+    <xsl:function name="vf:multiplicityAsSymbol">
+        <xsl:param name="m" as="element()"/>
+        <xsl:choose>
+            <xsl:when test="not($m/@minOccurs) and not($m/@maxOccurs)"><!-- do nothing --></xsl:when>
+            <xsl:when test="number($m/@minOccurs) eq 1 and number($m/@maxOccurs) eq 1"><!-- do nothing --></xsl:when>
+            <xsl:when test="number($m/@minOccurs) eq 0 and (number($m/@maxOccurs) eq 1 or not($m/@maxOccurs))">0..1</xsl:when>
+            <xsl:when test="number($m/@minOccurs) eq 0 and $m/@maxOccurs='unbounded'">0..*</xsl:when>
+            <xsl:when test="(not($m/@minOccurs) or number($m/@minOccurs) eq 1) and $m/@maxOccurs='unbounded'">1..*</xsl:when>
+            <xsl:when test="not($m/@minOccurs) and $m/@maxOccurs"><xsl:value-of select="concat('1..', $m/@maxOccurs)"/></xsl:when>
+            <xsl:when test="not($m/@maxOccurs) and $m/@minOccurs"><xsl:value-of select="concat($m/@maxOccurs,'..', $m/@maxOccurs)"/></xsl:when> <!-- this is probably illegal xsd, but just in case -->
+            <xsl:otherwise><xsl:value-of select="concat($m/@minOccurs,'..', $m/@maxOccurs)"/></xsl:otherwise>
+        </xsl:choose>
+    </xsl:function>
+
+</xsl:stylesheet>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/tools/xslt/vo-dml2gvd.xsl b/tools/xslt/vo-dml2gvd.xsl
index 58e14fe5..b16cd654 100644
--- a/tools/xslt/vo-dml2gvd.xsl
+++ b/tools/xslt/vo-dml2gvd.xsl
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ intermediate representation to a GraphViz dot file.
                 extension-element-prefixes="exsl">
   
   <xsl:import href="common.xsl"/>
+  <xsl:import href="common_functions.xsl"/>
   
   <xsl:output method="text" encoding="UTF-8" indent="no" />