Resource Files and the Public Metamodel

The PowerDesigner® modeling environment is powered by resource files, which define the objects available in each model along with the methods for generating and reverse-engineering them. These resource files are based upon the PowerDesigner public metamodel.

• Working with PowerDesigner Resource Files
  You can view, copy, and edit the XML-format resource files in order to customize and extend the behavior of the environment.
• Resource File Reference
  The following model types use standard PowerDesigner resource files, which you can review and edit in the Resource Editor.
• Extended Model Definitions
  Extended model definitions (.XEM files) provide means for customizing and extending PowerDesigner metaclasses, parameters and generation. XEMs are typed like models in PowerDesigner. You create an XEM for a specific type of model and you cannot share these files between heterogeneous models.
• The PowerDesigner Public Metamodel
  A metamodel describes the elements of a model, and the syntax and semantics of their manipulation. Where a model is an abstraction of data, and can be described using metadata, the metamodel is an abstraction of that metadata.
• The PowerDesigner XML Model File Format
  All model files in PowerDesigner have an extension that corresponds to the module in which they are saved. For example, a model saved in the object-oriented module has the extension OOM. Beside the file extension, you can decide a format for saving your models: