Migrating from MicroOLAP Database Designer to PgDesigner

MicroOLAP Database Designer for PostgreSQL is a long-standing schema design tool. Its last release (v1.16) was in July 2021 — no updates in nearly 5 years. If you’re looking for an actively maintained alternative that reads .pdd files natively, PgDesigner is a drop-in replacement.

PgDesigner reads .pdd files natively. This guide shows you how to migrate in under 5 minutes.

Step 1: Install PgDesigner

brew tap vmkteam/tap
brew install pgdesigner

Or download the binary for your platform.

Step 2: Convert your .pdd file

pgdesigner convert myproject.pdd -o myproject.pgd

That’s it. PgDesigner parses the MicroOLAP XML format and creates a .pgd file with all your tables, columns, indexes, foreign keys, primary keys, unique constraints, check constraints, enums, sequences, and comments preserved.

Step 3: Open in the visual editor

pgdesigner myproject.pgd

Your browser opens with the ERD canvas. All tables, relationships, and constraints are there — exactly as they were in MicroOLAP.

Step 4: Run lint to check for issues

pgdesigner lint myproject.pgd

PgDesigner runs 75 validation rules against your schema. After years in MicroOLAP, you might find:

• Missing FK indexes (W002) — MicroOLAP didn’t check for these
• char(n) columns (I001) — should probably be text
• serial columns (I004) — should be identity
• FK with NO ACTION (W015) — probably meant RESTRICT

Use pgdesigner lint -fix myproject.pgd to auto-fix the fixable ones.

Step 5: Commit to git

git add myproject.pgd
git commit -m "Migrate from MicroOLAP to PgDesigner"

From now on, every schema change produces clean single-line diffs in your pull requests.

What you gain by migrating

Feature	MicroOLAP	PgDesigner
PostgreSQL version	Up to PG12 (last update 2021)	PG18
Last update	July 2021	Active
Diff/ALTER engine	No	Yes (6 hazard codes)
Schema lint	No	75 rules, 15 autofix
Sample data generator	No	Yes (30 heuristics)
Git-friendly diffs	Poor	Single-line XML diffs
CLI for CI/CD	No	Yes
Cross-platform	Windows only	macOS, Linux, Windows
Price	From $124.95	$19 (free non-commercial)

What if my .pdd file has issues?

The converter handles most MicroOLAP features. If you encounter a conversion error, please open a GitHub issue with a sanitized version of your .pdd file. We actively support MicroOLAP migrations.

Also importing from other tools?

PgDesigner also imports from:

• DbSchema (.dbs) — pgdesigner convert schema.dbs -o project.pgd

• Toad Data Modeler (.dm2) — pgdesigner convert schema.dm2 -o project.pgd

• Plain SQL / pg_dump — pgdesigner convert schema.sql -o project.pgd

• Live PostgreSQL — pgdesigner convert "postgres://localhost/mydb" -o project.pgd

• See all import options →

• Download PgDesigner →