We are using Computer Associate’s ERwin Data Modeler 7.3 for data modeling. In one of our engagements, we are pushing data model changes to the physical database (Oracle 11g R2) via ERwin’s Forward Engineering / Schema Generation functionality.
The Forward Engineer / Schema Generation wizard offers the “Physical Order” option under “Column”. Checking this box is supposed to force the ERwin DDL generation engine to preserve the column order (i.e. the column order in the physical database must match the column order in the logical/physical model).
Problem: Even though our data modelers pay very close attention to the column order in the logical and physical model in ERwin, the Forward Engineering / Schema Generation process seems to lose the physical column order when generating the DDL (even though the “Physical Order” option is checked). Thus, the column order in the Oracle database never matches with the column order in the ERwin data model.
Solution / Work-Around: This is a bug as the behavior of this option seems to be inverted. If you want to preserve the column order, the “Physical Order” must be un-checked.
