Power*Architect Installation

# Power*Architect Prerequisites #

To run the Power*Architect, you need a Java Runtime Environment (JRE).  The Architect depends on Java 5, Standard Edition, or newer.  A current JRE for common operating systems can be obtained from Sun Microsystems (http://java.com/getjava/).  To ensure that your JRE is up-to-date, if you are an Apple Macintosh user, you should use Software Update from the Apple Menu.  If you are a Windows user, use the Java Updater (found in the Microsoft Windows Control Panel).  If you use a different system such as Linux, Solaris, or BSD, you should use the normal procedures for obtaining and updating software packages on your platform (packages, ports, etc.). 


# How to Obtain the Power*Architect Software #

The Power*Architect can be obtained from the download section of the SQL Power website (http://download.sqlpower.ca/architect/current.html). 
	
 You should only need to download one file, choosing the platform-appropriate distribution (Windows-Installer for Microsoft Windows, "DMG" for Apple Macintosh, and ".tar.gz" for other platforms).  You should normally choose the download with the highest revision number available. 

# How to Install Power*Architect #

	## Microsoft Windows ##
	
	Double click on the Architect-setup-Windows-n.m.jar.  This will launch the Microsoft Windows installer.  Follow the on-screen instructions. 
		
	If you are using Windows Vista, you will need to right-click the jar file and run it with administrative privileges, since it needs to write to your Program Files directory and to modify the Windows registry (to create the project file associations).  

	## Macintosh OS X ##
		
	Double-click the architect-n.m.dmg file, then agree to the license.  At this point, a new Finder window will appear with the Power*Architect icon hanging off of a rather fetching green mobile crane.  Drag the Architect program icon off of the crane hook and into your Applications folder.  Eject the disk image, then delete the dmg download file.  

	## Other Platforms ##
		
	Extract the Architect-generic-n.m.tar.gz package into the desired directory. 

# How to Run Power*Architect # 
		
	## Microsoft Windows ##
		
	From the start menu, select All Programs.  Then select the Power Architect program group.  Finally, click on the Power Architect shortcut. 
		
	## Macintosh OS X ##
		
	From the Finder, select Applications, then select Power*Architect.  To enable launching of the Architect directly from the Dock, either drag the program icon there or, while it is running, control-click on the Architect's dock icon and select Keep In Dock. 

	## Other Platforms ##
		
	In the directory into which you extracted the Architect, run the command java -jar architect.jar.  For larger projects, the default maximum amount of memory allowed by the Java runtime may not be enough.  In that case, use a command such as java -Xmx600m -jar architect.jar, which increases the cap on memory usage from the default 64MB to 600MB. 
		
	Note that this will not cause the Architect to immediately allocate that amount of memory: the Xmx setting simply sets the upper limit on the total amount of memory the Architect will be allowed to allocate.  If you are familiar with Unix-like operating systems, you can think of this setting as being similar to ulimit.  
		
	Alternatively, if your operating system has a visual filesystem browser, you may be able to launch the Architect by clicking (or double-clicking) on the architect.jar file.