Visio for Database Modeling

  • I am using Visio (Visual Studio .NET enterprise architect edition) as a modeling tool. I have a sql server 2000 database with 173 tables. After I select the options to reverse engineer my database and start adding tables to my diagram, I get this:

    MicroSoft Visual C++ Runtime Library

    Runtime Error!

    c:\program files\Microsoft office\visio10\visio.exe

    Abnormal program termination

    Actually, I am lucky if I get this error message, sometimes it just freezes the program. Anybody seen this before? Anybody have any advice? Thanks,

    Sherry

  • Is there an application dump file? Typically it shows up under C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\DrWatson\ if an application dump file was created.

    This isn't always the location. To verify where Dr. Watson puts the dump files, run c:\winnt\system32\drwtsn32.exe and look at the configuration.

    If there's a dump file, you can get some preliminary information by using Microsoft's debugging tools (http://www.microsoft.com/ddk/debugging/).

    K. Brian Kelley

    bkelley@sqlservercentral.com

    http://www.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/bkelley/

    K. Brian Kelley
    @kbriankelley

  • Thanks, Brian, but the application dump file is dated 4/29/02. (Too old.) I tried it anyway, but when opened with visual studio, it says it is an invalid binary format. Any othere suggestions?

  • Reinstall Visio. Haven't had issues with this, but I don't like it as a tool for modeling because it gets cumbersome and is not reliable for reverse and forward engineering.

    ER/Studio from Embarkadero was the best tool I've used, working with Erwin 4.0 now.

    Steve Jones

    sjones@sqlservercentral.com

    http://www.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/sjones

  • I figured out why it was happening. I had the entity relationship stencil closed so that I would have more room to work. Everytime I placed a table on the diagram that had a foreign key relationship, it would crash. If I keep the er stencil open, it doesn't crash. It is dumb, but it works.

  • Glad you found a workaround, though it is illogical, but totally Microsoft. Visual Studio I don't believe has the capability to debug crash dumps. That's where the debugging tools come in like kd and WinDBG.

    I'm in agreement with Steve, I don't care much for the database modeling using Visio, but unfortunately, that's all we have here where I work as well.

    K. Brian Kelley

    bkelley@sqlservercentral.com

    http://www.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/bkelley/

    K. Brian Kelley
    @kbriankelley

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