1. Set environment valiable. $ export SQLD4R_CONF=~/.sqld4r - Default is $HOME/.sqld4r 2. Create config file. $ sqld4r --init 3. Modify default values. $ vi ~/.sqld4r 4. Test for setting $ sqld4r --check 5. Generate migration files and model files from SQLDesigner xml file. $ cd your-rails-root $ sqld4r /path/to/SQLDesigner.xml For more information on sqld4r, see http://sqld4r.rubyforge.org