CA ERwin Data Modeler - Distinguishing Features

Distinguishing Features

• Logical Data Modeling: Purely logical models may be created, from which physical models may be derived. Combinations of logical and physical models are also supported. Supports entity-type and attribute logical names and descriptions, logical domains and data types, as well as relationship naming.
• Physical Data Modeling: Purely physical models may be created as well as combinations of logical and physical models. Supports the naming and description of tables and columns, user defined data types, primary keys, foreign keys, alternative keys and the naming and definition of constraints. Support for indexes, views, stored procedures and triggers is also included.
• Logical-to-Physical Transformation: Includes an abbreviation/naming dictionary called "Naming Standards Editor" and a logical-to-RDBMS data type mapping facility called "Datatype Standards Editor", both of which are customizable with entries and basic rule enforcement.
• Forward engineering: Once the database designer is satisfied with the physical model, the tool can automatically generate a SQL Data Definition Language (DDL) script that can either be directly executed on the RDBMS environment or saved to a file.
• Reverse engineering: If an analyst needs to examine and understand an existing data structure, ERwin will depict the physical database objects in an ERwin model file.
• Model-to-model comparison: The "Complete/Compare" facility allows an analyst or designer to view the differences between two model files (including real-time reverse-engineered files), for instance to understand changes between two versions of a model.
• An "Undo" feature is available in version 7.