ER Diagramming Tools - which one to use
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Hi there, I just want to get some opinions on which tool to use to diagram an ER Picture of a DB model having approx 900 tables, but .... I have tried a few (Erwin, Aqua Data Studio, Powerdesigner and a few more - even tried Visio). All have problems because I just have the tables - no modelled relations (a pretty bad model but that's the fact). A few PK's almost no FK's. All this is in the code layer or even in the head of the developer only. I want to put all this together to graficaly illustrate our data structure. What I need to get this job done is - reverse engineer to have a starting Point (Oracle 11 and MSSQL2008) to have all tables in this tool (on a hidden layer if possible) - Select some tables and copy them (link) to a new layer to switch visibility depending on the development task that i want to give to a developer - Display compact (square with table Name, and PKs only). Hide all other columns - a good way to arrange everything on Screen to avoid crossing Relations and to nicely arrange every table and relation - toggle visibility of a layer - a certain table appears on more than one layer depending on the development tasks - something that makes it all "nice" to present to the Boss. - crow feet Notation I more search a documentation type of drawing tool rather than a physical modelling. Some of the tested tools started with creating "alter table add column" scripts that immediately change my DB. This is something I dont need. Any idea out there? Any tools avail that accomplish this task? Thanks a lot in advance Ole
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Hi there, I just want to get some opinions on which tool to use to diagram an ER Picture of a DB model having approx 900 tables, but .... I have tried a few (Erwin, Aqua Data Studio, Powerdesigner and a few more - even tried Visio). All have problems because I just have the tables - no modelled relations (a pretty bad model but that's the fact). A few PK's almost no FK's. All this is in the code layer or even in the head of the developer only. I want to put all this together to graficaly illustrate our data structure. What I need to get this job done is - reverse engineer to have a starting Point (Oracle 11 and MSSQL2008) to have all tables in this tool (on a hidden layer if possible) - Select some tables and copy them (link) to a new layer to switch visibility depending on the development task that i want to give to a developer - Display compact (square with table Name, and PKs only). Hide all other columns - a good way to arrange everything on Screen to avoid crossing Relations and to nicely arrange every table and relation - toggle visibility of a layer - a certain table appears on more than one layer depending on the development tasks - something that makes it all "nice" to present to the Boss. - crow feet Notation I more search a documentation type of drawing tool rather than a physical modelling. Some of the tested tools started with creating "alter table add column" scripts that immediately change my DB. This is something I dont need. Any idea out there? Any tools avail that accomplish this task? Thanks a lot in advance Ole
I'm using Oracle SQL Developer Data Modeler[^]
ole.Grossklaus@gmx.de wrote:
- reverse engineer to have a starting Point (Oracle 11 and MSSQL2008) to have all tables in this tool (on a hidden layer if possible
Supports Oracle (duh), MSSQL and DB2.
ole.Grossklaus@gmx.de wrote:
- Select some tables and copy them (link) to a new layer to switch visibility depending on the development task that i want to give to a developer
It's tab based, you can create a new view with a subset of existing tables.
ole.Grossklaus@gmx.de wrote:
- Display compact (square with table Name, and PKs only). Hide all other columns
Yes
ole.Grossklaus@gmx.de wrote:
- a good way to arrange everything on Screen to avoid crossing Relations and to nicely arrange every table and relation
Auto arrange sucks big donkey balls. But it does in all tools in my opinion. So it's up to you to do the work I'm afraid.
ole.Grossklaus@gmx.de wrote:
- toggle visibility of a layer
It's tab based, and you can have one or more windows and move the tabs between them.
ole.Grossklaus@gmx.de wrote:
- a certain table appears on more than one layer depending on the development tasks
A table can appear in many windows/views, not sure if this is what you mean.
ole.Grossklaus@gmx.de wrote:
- something that makes it all "nice" to present to the Boss.
Use Powerpoint. :)
ole.Grossklaus@gmx.de wrote:
- crow feet Notation
Barker notation - check
Be excellent to each other. And... PARTY ON, DUDES! Abraham Lincoln