Manipulating Models, Collections, and Objects (Scripting)

You can manipulate the contents of a model by creating or opening it and then descending from the model root through collections of objects. A number of global properties, functions, and constants are available in any context and provide entry points for your scripts.

The following global properties provide access to the Workspace and models it contains:

ActiveWorkspace - Retrieves the current Workspace.
ActiveModel, ActivePackage, and ActiveDiagram - Retrieves the model, package, or diagram with current focus.
ActiveSelection - Read-only collection of the objects selected in the active diagram.
Models - Read-only collection of models open in the current Workspace.
RepositoryConnection - Retrieves the current repository connection (see Manipulating the Repository (Scripting)).

The following global functions are commonly used to create or open models and perform actions upon them:

CreateModel() and OpenModel() - Create and open a model (see Creating and Opening Models (Scripting)).
Output() - Prints text to the Script tab of PowerDesigner's Output window.
IsKindOf() - Tests the metaclass of the object.
ExecuteCommand() - Launches an external application
EvaluateNamedPath() and MapToNamedPath() - Manage named paths in model files.
BeginTransaction(), CancelTransaction(), and EndTransaction() - Start, cancel, and commit transactions.

The following global constants provide information about the instance of PowerDesigner:

UserName - Retrieves the user login name.
Version - Returns the PowerDesigner version.
HomeDirectory - Returns the application home directory.
RegistryHome - Returns the application registry home path.
Viewer - Returns True if the running application is a Viewer version that has limited features.
ValidationMode - By default, PowerDesigner performs various checks to validate your actions and gives an error in the case of a forbidden action. You can set ValidationMode = False (which turns off validation rules such as name uniqueness or link extremities) to improve performance or if your algorithm temporarily requires an invalid state.
InteractiveMode - Specifies the level of interaction required. You can choose between:
- im_Batch [default] - Suppresses dialog boxes and always uses default values. For example, if your model contains external shortcuts and the target model for the shortcuts is closed, this mode will automatically open the model without user interaction.
- im_Dialog - Displays information and confirmation dialog boxes that require user interaction for the execution to keep running.
- im_Abort - Suppresses dialog boxes and aborts execution if a dialog is encountered.
ShowMode [OLE-specific] - Checks or changes the visibility status of the main application window. Returns True if the application main window is visible and not minimized.
Locked [OLE-specific] - When set to True, ensures that PowerDesigner continues to run even after an OLE client disconnects.

For detailed information about all the global properties, constants, and functions, select Help > MetaModel Objects Help and navigate to Basic Elements.

Creating and Opening Models (Scripting)
You create models and open existing models using the CreateModel() and OpenModel() global functions. The model with the current focus is accessible via the ActiveModel global property, and the models currently open in the workspace are available from the Models global collection.
Browsing and Modifying Collections (Scripting)
Most metamodel navigation is performed by descending from the model root through collections of objects to collections of sub-objects or associated objects. An OOM contains a collection of classes and classes contain collections of attributes and operations. You can obtain information about and browse the members of a collection through scripting, as well as adding, removing, and moving objects in the collection.
Accessing and Modifying Objects and Properties (Scripting)
You can access and modify any PowerDesigner object and its properties by script. Objects include not only standard design objects (such as tables, classes, processes, and columns), but also diagrams and symbols and functional objects (such as a report or repository). An object belongs to a metaclass of the PowerDesigner metamodel and inherits properties, collections and methods from its metaclass.
Creating Objects (Scripting)
You should generally create objects via the collection under the parent object using the CreateNew() method. The CreateObject(kind) method is also available on model objects.
Displaying, Formatting, and Positioning Symbols (Scripting)
When you create an object, it will not appear in a diagram unless you use the AttachObject() or AttachLinkObject() method. Symbols are objects in their own right that can be accessed via collections on the parent object or diagram. You can position a symbol using the Position() method and change its format using the LineWidth and other formatting attributes.
Deleting Objects (Scripting)
You can delete objects using the Delete method.
Creating an Object Selection (Scripting)
You can create a selection of objects using the CreateSelection() method. You can perform actions on the selection such as changing properties or format or moving them to another package.
Controlling the Workspace (Scripting)
You can access the current workspace using the ActiveWorkspace global property, open, save, and close workspaces, and add folders and documents to it.

Parent topic: Scripting PowerDesigner