Getting Started with PowerDesigner®

PowerDesigner® is a graphical and easy-to-use enterprise modeling environment.

It provides:

Integrated modeling through standard methodologies and notations:

Data (E/R, Merise)

Business (BPMN, BPEL, ebXML)

Application (UML)
Automatic code generation through customizable templates:

SQL (with more than 50 supported DBMSs)

Java

.NET
Powerful reverse engineering capabilities to document and update existing systems
A scalable enterprise repository solution with strong security and versioning capabilities to aid multi-user development
Automated, customizable reporting capabilities
An extensible environment, permitting you to add new rules, commands, concepts and attributes to your modeling and coding methodologies

The PowerDesigner Interface
The picture below shows a typical PowerDesigner window configuration.
Modeling with PowerDesigner
PowerDesigner provides a unique set of enterprise modeling tools that bring together the standard techniques and notations of Business Process Modeling, Data Modeling and UML application modeling with other powerful features to assist you in analyzing, designing, building, and maintaining your applications, using software engineering best practices.
Linking and Synchronizing Models
PowerDesigner's sophisticated inter-model and code and database generation capabilities allow you to synchronize your models and applications to provide you with control over each and every modification.
PowerDesigner Documentation
The following manuals are provided with your PowerDesigner installation:
Creating a Model
You create a new model by selecting File New Model .
Saving a Model
Each model is saved in a separate file, with an extension specific to its model type. When you save a model, PowerDesigner also automatically creates a backup copy.
PowerDesigner License Management
PowerDesigner is licensed as a package of modules, or types of model. Various packages are available, each regrouping some or all of the modules. Your permission to use these modules is controlled by the Sybase licensing system, SySam.
Getting Started with the PowerDesigner Plugin for Eclipse
During your installation of PowerDesigner, you can choose to install a plugin to allow you to use PowerDesigner within your Eclipse environment. The PowerDesigner plugin for Eclipse is available for Eclipse v3.1 to v3.4.
Getting Started with the PowerDesigner Plugin for Visual Studio
During your installation of PowerDesigner, you can choose to install a plugin to allow you to use PowerDesigner within your Visual Studio environment. The PowerDesigner plugin for Microsoft Visual Studio and Team Foundation is available for Visual Studio 2005 to 2008.