PowerDesigner provides full support for round trip generation and reverse-engineering between a PDM and a database.
Connecting to a Database
PowerDesigner provides various methods for connecting to your database.
Generating a Database from a PDM
PowerDesigner can generate sophisticated SQL scripts as files or for direct execution via a live database connection.
Generating Test Data to a Database
Test data is sample data that PowerDesigner generates as rows in your database tables to verify database performance or to help in estimating the amount of memory that the database will require. You can generate test data for some or all of the tables in your PDM to an empty or existing database.
Estimating Database Size
You can estimate the size of a database for all or some of the tables and other objects in your model. You can estimate the initial size of the database or project its growth over a number of years.
Modifying a Database
You can modify an existing database schema by synchronizing it with your model. The existing schema can be in the form of an archive model, a live database connection, a script file, or a model from the repository. The PDM (source model) and the existing database schema (target model) are merged using a database synchronization window, which allows you to choose which objects are added, deleted, or updated in the target.
Displaying Data from a Database
You can connect to a database and display the data that corresponds to a PDM table, view, or reference.
Reverse Engineering a Database into a PDM
Reverse engineering is the process of generating a PDM (or certain PDM objects) from an existing database schema. You can reverse engineer into a new PDM or an existing PDM from one or more script files or from a live database.