Chapter 6. Setting Preferences

Table of Contents

Defining Project Settings
Setting User Preferences

Defining Project Settings

You can define several settings that apply to all Power*Architect projects.

  1. Select File » Project Settings. The Project Settings dialog box appears.

  2. Enter the following information:

    In this field ...

    Do this ...

    Snapshot Entire Source Database in Project File?

    When you open a source database in Power*Architect (for example, to use for reverse engineering), the database's data structure (catalogues, schemas, tables, etc.) is shown in the database tree. Select this check box if you always want to save the entire data structure in your Power*Architect project. This allows you to view the objects at any time without having to reconnect to the source system.

    Important: If you use this option, the first time you save your project will be very time-consuming and involve a lot of database activity.

    Number of Common Values in Profiles

    When profiling a database using graph view, you can view the most common values that occur in a column. Use this option to set the number of common values to include in the profile. For example, enter 10 if you want to include the ten most common values.

    For more information about profiling, see the section called “Profiling Data” .

    Profile Creator Mode

    Select the mode used to create a profile.

    • Remote Database - This mode sends a query to the database and the database calculates all of the statistics. This works well over a large network because very little data is transferred.

    • Local Reservoir - This mode transfers all of the data to the local computer where it is sampled and processed. This works well over a fast network. This option is still experimental and is known to cause an out of memory error when profiling large tables.

    For more information about profiling, see the section called “Profiling Data” .

    Draw Relationships With

    Select the method used to draw relationship lines in the playpen.

    Note: Changing this option affects new and existing relationship lines.

    • Rectilinear Lines - Use horizontal and vertical line segments to connect tables. One to three line segments will be used (at right angles to each other) depending on the position of the tables at each end of the relationship line.

    • Direct Lines - Use a single line segment (usually diagonal) to connect the tables.

    Show Options

    Select how to display your project in the playpen.

    Note: Changing these options affects new and existing columns and tags.

    • Show Primary Key Columns - display Primary Key Columns if checked, else otherwise.

    • Show Foreign Key Columns - display Foreign Key Columns if checked, else otherwise.

    • Show Indexed Key Columns - display Indexed Key Columns if checked, else otherwise.

    • Show Unique Key Columns - display Unique Key Columns if checked, else otherwise.

    • Show Remaining Key Columns - display rest Columns if checked, else otherwise.

    • Show PK tags - display [PK] tags for Primary Key columns if checked, else otherwise.

    • Show FK tags - display [FK] tags for Foreign Key columns if checked, else otherwise.

    • Show AK tags - display [AK] tags for the columns which belong to the unique indexes.

  3. Click OK.