Physical Data Models

A physical data model (PDM) helps you to analyze the tables, views, and other objects in a database, including multidimensional objects necessary for data warehousing. A PDM is more concrete than a conceptual (CDM) or logical (LDM) data model. You can model, reverse-engineer, and generate for all the most popular DBMSs.



Depending on the type of database you want to design, you will use different types of diagrams in the PDM:

PowerDesigner provides support for a wide range of database families through DBMS definition files (*.xdb, located in Resource Files\DBMS inside your installation directory), which customize the metamodel to support the specific syntax of a DBMS, through extended attributes, objects, and generation templates. To view and edit the resource file for your DBMS, select Database > Edit Current DBMS. For detailed information about working with these files, see Customizing and Extending PowerDesigner > DBMS Definition Files.