Building Data Models

The chapters in this part explain how to model your data systems in PowerDesigner®.

• Getting Started with Data Modeling
  A data model is a representation of the information consumed and produced by a system, which lets you analyze the data objects present in the system and the relationships between them. PowerDesigner® provides conceptual, logical, and physical data models to allow you to analyze and model your system at all levels of abstraction.
• Conceptual and Logical Diagrams
  The data models in this chapter allow you to model the semantic and logical structure of your system.
• Physical Diagrams
  A physical data diagram provides a graphical view of your database structure, and helps you analyze its tables (including their columns, indexes, and triggers), views, and procedures, and the references between them.
• Multidimensional Diagrams
  A multidimensional data diagram provides a graphical view of your datamart or data warehouse database, and helps you identify the facts and dimensions that will be used to build its cubes.
• Triggers and Procedures
  PowerDesigner provides support for modeling triggers and stored procedures.
• Web Services
  Web services are applications stored on web servers that you can access remotely through standard web protocols (HTTP, SOAP) and data formats (HTML, XML...), whatever the systems and programming languages.
• Physical Implementation
  In addition to modeling the logical structure of your data systems, you can use PowerDesigner to specify the physical environment to which the database will be deployed.
• Checking a Data Model
  The data model is a very flexible tool, which allows you quickly to develop your model without constraints. You can check the validity of your Data Model at any time.
• Generating and Reverse-Engineering Databases
  PowerDesigner provides full support for round trip generation and reverse-engineering between a PDM and a database.
• Generating Other Models from a Data Model
  You can generate various types of PowerDesigner models from CDMs, LDMs, and PDMs.
• Working with SQL Statements in PowerDesigner
  Each object that you create in your model is associated with SQL code that can be used to create or modify it in your database schema, and which is displayed on the Preview tab of its property sheet. Certain objects also require that you write your own custom SQL statements.
• Migrating from ERwin to PowerDesigner
  You can easily import a model built with ERwin into PowerDesigner with no loss of metadata. PowerDesigner allows complete flexibility through reliable linking and synchronization between conceptual, physical and object-oriented model approaches, providing outstanding model clarity and flexibility.