Upgrading from 32-Bit to 64-Bit PowerDesigner

Upgrading PowerDesigner to 64-bit requires that you upgrade your ODBC and other connections to the repository and other databases from 32-bit to 64-bit as well. If you install the 64-bit PowerDesigner client on a machine where the 32-bit client is already installed, the setup will uninstall the 32-bit client. If the upgrade is performed by an administrator who is not the PowerDesigner user, the user may need to manually modify PowerDesigner resource file paths (to files such as DBMS and language definition files, user profiles and model extensions). Other defaults and preferences will be correctly copied to the new installation.

1. Open the 32-bit PowerDesigner client and select Repository > Repository Definitions to review your repository connections. If you connect to the repository using a:
   • Proxy connection - No action is needed and you will be able to connect immediately after upgrading to 64-bit.
   • Direct connection - You will need to modify the connection, after the upgrade, to use 64-bit ODBC or other connectivity.
2. If you use PowerDesigner to connect to other databases, you will need to modify their connections to 64-bit ODBC or other connectivity as well:
   1. Open a PDM and select Database > Configure Connections.
   2. Review the connections on the ODBC Machine Data Sources, ODBC File Sources, and Connection Profiles tabs and note those that you will want to recreate for 64-bit.
3. Close the 32-bit PowerDesigner client.
4. Launch the 64-bit PowerDesigner client setup and follow the setup instructions (see Installing PowerDesigner). The installer will install the 64-bit client and remove the 32-bit client.
5. Open the 64-client and modify your repository definitions and other database connections to use 64-bit ODBC or other connectivity.
6. If an administrator has performed the upgrade on your behalf (and resource files are not stored in the repository), the installer will not have been able to modify the paths that PowerDesigner uses to find resource files. For example, if the 32-bit client was installed in its default location of C:\Program Files (x86)\Sybase\PowerDesigner x and the 64-bit client is installed in its default location of C:\Program Files\Sybase\PowerDesigner x, then the client will not be able to find the default resource files located in the 64-bit installation, and these will not appear in your resource file lists. To make the default resource files visible:
   1. Open the resource file list. For example, to open the list of DBMSs, select Tools > Resources > DBMS.
   2. Click the Path tool and then click the Add a Directory tool, navigate to the resource file location (for example, C:\Program Files\Sybase\PowerDesigner x\Resource Files\DBMS) and click OK to add it to the path list.
   3. Click OK to return to the resource file list. The standard resource files will now be present.
   4. Repeat these steps for each type of resource file.
   Note: To comply with recent Microsoft recommendations, from version 16.5 onwards, PowerDesigner no longer allows you to save modifications to resource files inside the Program Files folder, and will propose an alternative location if you try to do so, adding the selected directory to the list of paths for that type of resource file. If you have previously created or modified resource files inside Program Files, your files may no longer be available, as Windows Vista or Windows 7 actually store them in a virtual mirror at, for example, C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\Sybase\PowerDesigner 16\Resource Files\DBMS. To restore these files to your lists, optionally move them to a more convenient path, and add their location to your list using the Path tool.