Understanding display options for symbols

Chapter 5 Managing Models

Understanding display options for symbols

PowerDesigner lets you manage the display of symbols in the diagram from the Show Symbol dialog box. You can:

Create a symbol for an object
Hide the symbol of an object
Show the hidden symbol of an object

For each symbol, the Show Symbols dialog box provides a display state:

State	In diagram
Visible	The object symbol appears in the diagram
Hidden	The object symbol exists but it is hidden in the diagram
None	The object symbol does not exist in the diagram

You can select or clear the check boxes beside the state column to modify the display state of symbols in the following way:

If the current state is...	And the check box is...	The result in the diagram...
Visible		The symbol will be displayed
		The symbol will be hidden
Hidden		The symbol remains hidden
		The symbol will be redisplayed
None		The symbol does not exist
		The symbol will be created

Symbol deletion
You cannot delete a symbol from the Show Symbols dialog box. When a symbol is hidden it is not deleted.

Show symbol directly in the diagram

If an object has no symbol, you can show it directly in the diagram without using the Show Symbols dialog box, by using the:

Drag and Drop function

Paste as Shortcut command

Action	Result
Standard Drag and Drop from Model Explorer to diagram	Object symbol created in the destination diagram
Drag and Drop from diagram to diagram + Create shortcut option selected (General Options) or Copy symbol + Paste as Shortcut command from diagram to diagram	Object symbol created in the destination diagram with symbol format parameters and relative position preserved

For more information on the Drag and Drop function and the Paste as Shortcut command, see respectively sections Dragging and dropping objects and Pasting an object as a shortcut in chapter Managing Objects.