Reverse Engineering

Reverse Engineering refers to the process of reading information about your existing database object from the system catalog and creating a new Model based on them. This is a good place to start using the product if you already have a database.

How to Reverse Engineer a new Model:

Select Database > Reverse Engineer from the menu, or select

from the Database toolbar, or select

from the Database Tasks section of the Shortcut Toolbar to start the Reverse Engineer wizard. If you have a Model open, ModelRight will close it before starting the Reverse Engineer process. If the Model has any unsaved changes, ModelRight will prompt you to save them.

•	Enter the connection information for the database that you want to Reverse Engineer, and click on Next. ModelRight uses native drivers so there is no need to fuss with ODBC drivers.

3.	In the next page, define the database objects that you want to import.

You can filter the database objects that you import in a number of ways:

•

You can filter any type of object by Name by entering a comma separated list of filters. These filters are used to form a LIKE conditions in the query statement that ModelRight uses to retrieve database objects. If a Name filter term starts with a "!", then a "NOT LIKE" condition will be used for that term. In the screenshot above, the Table Name filter specifies that only Tables starting with "EMP" or "JOB" will be imported.

•	Filter By Schema: if you select this option, then only objects from the selected database Schemas will be imported.

•	Filter By Tablespace: select this option if you want to import Table and Materialized Views based on the Tablespace they are in.

•

Include Referenced Objects: if this option is selected, then if an object that is being imported references an object that is not selected for import, that referenced object will also be imported. i.e. if a Table you are importing has a Column that is a foreign key from another table that is not being imported, then that parent Table will also be imported - or if you chose not to import Tablespaces, and this option is selected, then ModelRight will automatically import Tablespaces that are used by the Tables that are imported.

4.	The next screen displays just for your information - and to let you cancel the RE if you want. If you do hit Cancel, keep in mind that the first Cancel stops the RE, and the second Cancel will Cancel the dialog. Hitting Finish will Commit the RE process.

The RE process has completed. This dialog is displayed when you hit Finish to give you the option of not opening and laying out an initial Diagram. The time that Auto-Layout and Diagram display of your new Model takes depends on how large your new Model is. Most of the time you would want to just hit the default, Yes, option.

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