Generating Cube Data

You can map physical tables (including those of type dimension or fact) to cube dimensions or cube measures in OLAP databases, and use these mappings to generate cube data in text files to be loaded by OLAP engines. When you use the Rebuild Cubes command to create cubes and dimensions from fact and dimension tables, mappings between source tables and OLAP objects are automatically created.

Once the source tables or views are identified, you can define mappings between attributes or measures and table columns.

In a PDM multidimensional diagram, each cube is associated with a query. There is one cube per mapping and per data source. The query defined on a cube is used to extract data from a data warehouse or operational database to populate the cubes in the OLAP database. The link between the data warehouse database and the OLAP database is a relational to multidimensional mapping.

When you generate cube data, PowerDesigner produces one text file for each selected cube and each selected data source. The name of the generated file is a concatenation of the name of the cube and that of the data source, and it contains the following fields:

Field	Details
Dimension	Lists the attributes of the cube
Member	Lists the attribute values
Data fields	Contains the values stored in the fact measures

In the multidimensional diagram, select Tools > Generate Cube Data.

The Generate Cube Data dialog box is displayed.
Define a destination directory for the generated file in the Directory box.
Select the generation options in the Options tab.
Select the cubes and data sources for which you want to generate a file from the sub- tabs in the Selection tab.
Click OK.

The generated files are stored in the destination directory you have defined.