PowerDesigner vs ERwin Terminology

PowerDesigner and ERwin use different terms to describe certain model objects.

The import process converts general model objects as follows:

ERwin

PowerDesigner

Model

Model

Stored display and subject area

Diagram

Business rule

Business rule

Domain

Domain

Symbols ( including symbol size and position)

Symbols ( including symbol size and position)

Description

Description

Notes

Annotation

Text block

Text symbol

IE notation

Entity/Relationship notation

IDEF1X notation

IDEF1X notation

User-defined properties

Imported as extended attributes stored in an extension file called Imported Attributes and embedded in the model. For information about working with extension files, see Customizing and Extending PowerDesigner > Extension Files.

The import process converts ERwin logical model objects into conceptual data model (CDM) objects as follows:

ERwin logical model

PowerDesigner CDM

Attribute

Data item, entity attribute

Key group

Identifier

Entity

Entity

Relationship

Relationship

Subtype relationship

Inheritance link

Subtype category

Inheritance

The import process translates ERwin physical model objects into physical data model (PDM) objects as follows:

ERwin physical model

PowerDesigner PDM

Column

Column

Key

Key

Table

Table

Relationship

Reference

Index

Index

View table

View

Fact, dimension, outrigger

Table

Target database

Current DBMS

Valid value

Check parameter

Tablespace

Tablespace

Segment

Storage