Creating a replica using drag and drop

Chapter 8 Shortcuts and Object Replications

Creating a replica using drag and drop

You can use drag and drop while holding alt+shift to create replicas in the Browser or diagram, or from one to the other. A rounded arrow within a circle is displayed under the cursor when you are about to create the replica.

You can replicate sub-objects by drag and drop in the Browser while pressing the alt + shift keys combination. It can be useful to replicate a sub-object independently of its parent object (for example a column without the table that owns it) to create a reference library, in which you can store columns, attributes or operations that you regularly use.

The following example illustrates a column (Column_1) in Table_1 that is replicated in Table_2:

You can define the default behavior of drag and drop to directly create replicas (see "Setting PowerDesigner general options" in the Models chapter).

To create a replica by drag and drop:

Select a target object in the Browser.

Press alt+shift while you drag the object to the desired model or package and release the mouse button.

The replica is displayed in the active model or package and in the Browser under the appropriate node.

Replicate Here contextual menu
You can also create a replica by right-clicking and dragging the target object and select the Replicate Here menu item from the contextual menu.

Replicas and namespace

Name uniqueness is automatically checked when you replicate an object, so that replicas are renamed in the referencing model when objects with the same name already exist in the model.

For more information on the definition of the namespace, see "Objects namespaces"" in the Objets chapter.

The following example illustrates the replication of Entity_1 in a model that already contains an entity named Entity_1. The Entity_1 replica is automatically renamed to Entity_2 in the referencing model: