PowerDesigner supports the most popular data modeling notations in the CDM and LDM. You can choose your notation by clicking and selecting it in the Notation list.
Entity/relationship Notation
In the Entity/relationship notation, entities are represented as rectangles and divided in three compartments: name, attributes, and identifiers.
The termination points of relationships indicate the cardinality as follows:
(Note that the Merise notation uses associations instead of relationships):
Inheritance symbols indicate if they are complete and if they have mutually exclusive children:
IDEF1X Notation
In the Idef1x notation, entity names are displayed outside the symbol, and dependent entities are drawn with round corners.
Relationship symbols indicate the cardinality as follows:
Inheritance symbols indicate if the inheritance is complete:
Barker Notation
In the Barker notation, entities are drawn with round corners, and inheritances are displayed by placing children inside the parent entity.
Only attributes are listed and a symbol specifies whether each attribute is a key, a mandatory or an optional attribute as follows:
Relationship symbols indicate the cardinality as follows:
The line style specifies if a relationship is mandatory:
