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Reverse Engineering Entity Relationship Diagrams for SS2005

  • November 9, 2007 at 12:03 am

    #376756

    Does anyone know how to reverse engineer Entity Relationship Diagrams for Sql Server 2005 (or indeed Sql Server 2000) without using a proprietary (something you've paid money for) 3rd party app?

    Thank in advance much appreciated

  • November 9, 2007 at 2:58 am

    #749761

    Hey,

    Have you tried using the built-in diagramming tool, which exist in both versions? In SQL Server 2000 EM and 2005 SSMS, this is under the database name container.

    Thank you,

    Phillip Cox

  • November 11, 2007 at 5:30 pm

    #750118

    Hi there,

    Thanks for the suggestion but I cannot see what you've described. If you have a database called Containers, maybe someone has installed a 3rd party app in the past which created such a DB, but it certainly isn't out-the-box?!

    Thanks anyway,

    PTID

  • November 12, 2007 at 3:18 am

    #750178

    I think you may have misunderstood what Philip meant by "container". If you expand the list of options under the database in EM/SSMS, the first item in the list should be "Diagrams" (2000) or "Database Diagrams" (2005). Right-click to create a new diagram.

  • November 12, 2007 at 3:20 am

    #750179

    Sorry Phillip - spelled your name wrong in my last reply. :crying:

  • November 12, 2007 at 3:26 am

    #750181

    Hi Andrew,

    No worries, more importantly have you managed to reverse engineer the database?

    Thanks,

    Phillip

  • November 12, 2007 at 3:52 am

    #750186

    Er...it wasn't me that was having the problem. 😉

  • November 12, 2007 at 8:31 am

    #750271

    Ooops! Sorry Andrew, too excited.

  • November 12, 2007 at 7:39 pm

    #750445

    Cool thanks guys, that works a treat.

    I also found a ERD reverse engineering tool in Visio which is a bit more polished but then of course you pay for it 🙂

    Thanks again,

    PTID

  • November 13, 2007 at 6:59 am

    #750654

    Visio is definitely better than the diagramming tool that comes with SSMS. You can also get a VERY nice modeller from Embarcadero called ERStudio for a really good price if you specify you want a SQL Server only license.

    Best,
    Kevin G. Boles
    SQL Server Consultant
    SQL MVP 2007-2012
    TheSQLGuru on googles mail service

  • November 18, 2007 at 5:10 pm

    #752121

    I've made extensive use of the SS EM (2000) diagramming tool. It has a few issues, but the main one is that there's no supported way to archive the diagrams to migrate them to a new database. I use BCP to dump the dtproperties table, then create an empty diagram (without saving) in a revised database to re-create dtproperties, then load the dumped table again using BCP. The diagrams will open and incorporate any new columns and foreign-key relationships, and of course will complain about any missing tables. But then you can add any new tables and adjust the layout, before saving and dumping again.

    To get a diagram to pass around your team, just print to PDF (or via a postscript print-to-file than use Ghostscript).

  • December 2, 2009 at 8:48 am

    #1086572

    Yep, Visio is great, but the diagrams are UML diagrams and those are not exactly ER models. In the company I work for they require the diagrams to be ER diagrams. I think I am going to try the ER/Studio.

  • December 3, 2009 at 8:15 am

    #1087113

    Jportelas (12/2/2009)

    Yep, Visio is great, but the diagrams are UML diagrams and those are not exactly ER models. In the company I work for they require the diagrams to be ER diagrams. I think I am going to try the ER/Studio.

    That is not true. You CAN do explicit industry-standard database models in Visio. Perhaps it is a feature only available in a higher edition of Visio than you have?

    Best,
    Kevin G. Boles
    SQL Server Consultant
    SQL MVP 2007-2012
    TheSQLGuru on googles mail service

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