Showing and Hiding Symbols

For PowerDesigner objects that have symbols, the symbol is automatically displayed in the diagram when you create the object. Hiding some symbols can improve the readability of your diagram. When you hide a symbol you do not delete it or the object.

Note:

When you hide an object with link objects connected to it, the links are also hidden. For example, if you hide a table symbol, any references attached to it will also be hidden.

To open the Show Symbols dialog, select Symbol > Show Symbols or right-click the diagram background and select Diagram > Show Symbols:

Object symbols are organized by type in sub-tabs. If shortcuts, extended dependencies and/or free symbols are present in the package, they appear on their own sub-tabs. You show and hide symbols by selecting or deselecting them.

The following tools are available for selecting symbols:

Tool	Description
	Allows you to select objects from other packages to display them in the current diagram.
	Selects all objects in the current tab. You can select all objects on all tabs by pressing the Ctrl key as you click or by clicking the arrow and selecting All Pages.
	Deselects all objects in the current tab. You can deselect all objects on all tabs by pressing the Ctrl key as you click or by clicking the arrow and selecting All Pages.
	Moves all selected object to the top of the list
	Moves all selected object to the bottom of the list

Note:

To hide one or more symbols without using this dialog, select them and then choose Hide Symbols from the Symbol or contextual menu. To show a symbol without using the dialog, simply drag the object into the diagram from the Browser or another diagram. If you drag the symbol from another package or model, a shortcut to the object will be created in the destination model.