Chapter 3. How to Use the Power*Architect

Table of Contents

Power*Architect User Interface
Setting the User Preferences
JDBC Drivers
A Brief Example
Using Diagram Components
Creating New Tables
Editing Tables
Creating New Columns
Editing Columns
Dragging Columns
Creating Non-Identifying and Identifying Relationships
Editing a Relationship
Selecting Multiple Items in the Playpen
Relocating Objects in the Playpen
Deleting Diagram Components
Database Usage in Power*Architect
Adding a New Connection to the Power*Architect
Adding an Existing Connection
Editing Database Connection Properties
Removing a Database Connection
Setting the Current Project Database
Navigating through the Database Tree
Moving Items from the Database Tree
Find/Replace Function
What It Does
How to Use Find / Replace Function:
Profiling
Table View
Graph View
Forward Engineering and Compare Data Model
Forward Engineering
Compare Data Model Function
Autolayout
What It Does
How to Use Autolayout:
SQLRunner
What It Does
How to Use SQLRunner
Output (Results) Window
Output Formats
Quick Start Wizard
What It Does
How to Use The Quick Start Wizard

Power*Architect User Interface

When you start the Power*Architect, you will see the Project window, shown below, which is the main view area and starting point for actions.

Database Tree - This is where you can add, maintain and explore imported connections. It uses a tree-node dropdown method. Therefore to explore inner components, you can expand components within this container as needed.

Playpen - This is the main area of the window, in which you manipulate tables and relationships. You can play here to your heart's content, knowing it will not be saved until you ask the program to save.

Playpen Components - These are the components that can go into the playpen. The playpen components are Tables and Relationships.

Zoom Tools allow you to control the magnification level of components display

Delete will delete the selected component(s).

Create/Maintain Playpen Components is discussed in Using Components below.