The PowerDesigner Interface

The picture below shows a typical PowerDesigner window configuration.

The following components are visible:

The Browser - displays your models and the objects belonging to them, and allows you to rapidly navigate between them. The Browser also has a tab that gives you access to a PowerDesigner repository, where you can store all your models and associated files.
The canvas is the primary pane that displays your present model diagram or report outline.
The palette provides graphical tools to help you quickly build model diagrams. The tools available will change depending on the type of diagram
The output window shows the progress of any PowerDesigner process, such as checking a model or generating or reverse engineering a database.
The Result List displays the results of a search or a model check.

The Welcome Page
The Welcome page gives you one-click access to all your recent projects, workspaces, and models, as well as providing a direct link to the New Model and New Project dialogs and a range of help materials. To suppress this page, select the Do not show this page again check box. You can redisplay it at any time by selecting View Welcome Page .
The Browser
The Browser provides a hierarchical view of all your model objects.
Property Sheets
Each model object has a property sheet, which permits you to view and edit any of its properties. You can access an object's property sheet by double-clicking its symbol or browser entry, or right-clicking it and selecting Properties from the contextual menu.
Object Lists
Object lists are available from the Model menu. You can view, add, create, modify, and delete multiple objects of a particular type from an object list.

Parent topic: Getting Started with PowerDesigner®