Of course, you can also ‘redo’ edits you’ve previously undone.

PowerDesigner uses the standard Windows shortcuts for undo and redo, provides undo and redo options on the ‘Edit’ menu, and a couple of tools on the standard toolbar for you. See Table 10.6.

Table 10.6 Undo and redo

If you really mess things up, you can always close a model without saving it, and then open it again.

Working with Diagrams

A diagram is a graphical view of all or part of a model. All models have at least one diagram. You can add multiple diagrams to a model if you want to display different subsets of the model, or display the same objects in a different way for different audiences. To open a diagram, you must first open the model that contains it.

Dependency Matrices enable you to keep track of which objects appear on which diagrams. We will see one of these in Chapter 12.

Creating a Diagram

Every model (and package) has a default diagram that PowerDesigner creates for you. You can never delete the last diagram in a model (or package). You can create as many diagrams as you want in a model or in a package.

You can create a diagram in any of the following ways:

·         In the View menu, select Diagram|New Diagram|Diagram type. If you have previously selected any object symbols, then the selected symbols are copied into the new diagram (see also “Creating a Diagram from a Selection” below).

·         Right-click the background of your diagram and select Diagram|New Diagram|Diagam type. (see Figure 10.34).

Figure 10.34 Creating a diagram from a diagram

·         Right-click the model node in the Browser and select New|Diagram type.

In each case, you will be invited to specify a name, code, and optional comment for the new diagram.

The default name for a diagram is ‘Diagram_n’. It is definitely worth changing the name to something more meaningful – this makes it easier to distinguish between diagram tabs when you have more than one diagram open. See “Viewing Diagrams”, later in this chapter.

  “Creating a Diagram” (Core Features Guide)

Creating a Diagram from a Selection

If you have selected two or more symbols in a diagram, you can create a new diagram from your selection by right-clicking in the selection and choosing Create Diagram from Selection from the contextual menu.

·         The selected objects will now be present in both the original and the new diagram

·         The display preferences of the new diagram are identical to the display preferences of the original diagram

·         The style and layout of the symbols will be identical in the two diagrams.

  “Creating a Diagram from a Selection” (Core Features Guide)

Opening Diagrams

When you open a model, the default diagram opens in the canvas, in a new tab. Additional diagrams can be opened from the Browser or from the View menu.

·         Double-click the diagram entry in the Browser.

or

·         To open another diagram in the same model

o        Press <Ctrl+D>, or select View|Diagram|Select Diagram to open the Select Diagram dialog box, select a diagram node in the tree, and click OK.

o        On the contextual menu for an open diagram, select Diagram|Select Diagram to open the ‘Select Diagram’ dialog box.

   “Opening and Viewing Diagrams” (Core Features Guide)

Viewing Diagrams

In PowerDesigner, you can choose how much of a diagram you want to view. The viewing options are supported by a combination of tools in the standard palette, the View menu, The ‘View’ toolbar, and keyboard shortcuts. Table 10.7 shows the options available. See also “The View Toolbar” earlier in this chapter.

Table 10.7 Diagram viewing tools