The PowerDesigner Public Metamodel

The PowerDesigner public metamodel is an abstraction of the metadata for all the PowerDesigner models, describing the elements of a model, and the syntax and semantics of their manipulation.

You can review the public metamodel in PowerDesigner by opening install dir\Examples\MetaModel.oom, and find exhaustive documentation of all the metamodel objects, collections, and methods available via scripting, by selecting Help > Metamodel Objects Help (see Using the Metamodel Objects Help File).

This OOM and help file help you understand the structure of your models, especially when working with:

Generation Template Language (GTL) templates (see Customizing Generation with GTL).
VB scripts (see Scripting PowerDesigner).
PowerDesigner XML model files (see PowerDesigner Model File Format).

The metamodel is divided into the following main packages:

PdBPM - Business Process Model
PdCDM - Conceptual Data Model
PdCommon - contains all objects shared between two or more models, and the abstract classes of the model. For example, business rules, which are available in all models, and the BaseObject class, from which all model objects are derived, are defined in this package. Other model packages are linked to PdCommon by generalization links indicating that each model inherits common objects from the PdCommon package.
PdEAM - Enterprise Architecture Model
PdFRM - Free Model
PdGLM - Glossary Model
PdILM - Data Movement Model (the DMM was previously named Information Liquidity Model or ILM, and the PdILM library name has been retained for backwards compatibility)
PdLDM - Logical Data Model
PdMTM - Merise Model (available in French only)
PdOOM - Object Oriented Model
PdPDM - Physical Data Model
PdPRJ - Project
PdRMG - Repository
PdRQM - Requirements Model
PdXSM - XML Model
PdWSP - Workspace

Each of these top-level packages contains the follow kinds of sub-objects, organized by diagram or, in the case of PdCommon, by sub-packages:

Features - All the features implemented by classes in the model. For example, Report (available in all models) belongs to PdCommon, and AbstractDataType belongs to PdPDM.
Objects - Design objects in the model
Symbols - Graphical representation of design objects

Navigating in the Metamodel
You can expand and collapse the packages in the Browser to explore their contents. Double-click a diagram to display it in the canvas.
Using the Metamodel Objects Help File
PowerDesigner provides documentation of the metamodel available from Help > Metamodel Objects Help.
PowerDesigner Model File Format
PowerDesigner models are made up of objects, the properties and interactions of which are explained in the public metamodel. Models can be saved in either binary or XML file formats. Binary files are smaller and significantly quicker to open and save, but XML model files can be edited by hand or programatically (and DTDs are provided for each model type in the DTD folder in the installation directory).