Chapter 8 Managing Objects
Objects the things that you model with. For example, tables, data items, generalizations, and packages are PowerDesigner objects.
There is detailed information about each object in the relevant model User Guide. The following sections describe generic features available for all objects.
All objects appear as nodes in the Model Explorer, and many are available via object lists (in the Model menu) and have a symbol that can be displayed in the diagram window.
Objects and Symbols
Objects appear in the Model Explorer. What you can see in the diagram windows are instances of objects called symbols.
In PowerDesigner, each package can be a namespace. It is however possible to expand the namespace to the parent of a given package. You can cascade the expansion until you reach the level of the model itself.
Objects that appear in the Model Explorer obey the general rules that follow:
| In Model Explorer | Namespace | Uniqueness rule |
|---|---|---|
| Objects directly under a package or a model (table, process, class) | Model | Unique name and code in model |
| Package | Unique name and code in package | |
| Objects under parent object (column, attribute) | Not applicable | Unique name and code in parent |
| Linking objects (reference, relationship) | Not applicable | Unique name and code between same end objects (i.e., parallel links with same name and code are not allowed between same end objects) |
However, you may encounter some exceptions to those rules. For example only the code of a reference allows to identify the object in the entire model, when the "Unique code" option is selected in the Model Options dialog box. PowerDesigner warns you when a general rule is not respected.
For more information about the management of namespace, see section Managing the namespace in models in chapter Managing Models.
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