InstantForum.NET v2.9.0SQLServerCentralhttp://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/notifications@sqlservercentral.comTue, 21 May 2013 12:56:16 GMT20http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic429673-9-1.aspxAssuming the tables are already related with foreign keys, you can create a new diagram in SQL Management Studio and simply add all of the tables in the database. The relationships will be automatically drawn in for you.Thu, 06 Dec 2007 11:24:46 GMTChris Campbell-415954http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic429673-9-1.aspxhb,With our vendor supported applications that we are not able to get an ERD from, I use Visio Professional 2007 for reverse engineering a database.I wrote a tutorial in another thread this week at:Topic: Domains and Schemashttp://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic428540-359-2.aspx#bm428845Best of Luck!Thu, 06 Dec 2007 10:56:03 GMTKey DBAhttp://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic429673-9-1.aspxyeah, I guess all the constraints can be done within the application.but to help or even stop end line users from making a mash of the database structure, i would see this as an invaluable tool.e.g. I have a few databases, and I'd like to tap into them to drag out data for reporting, mabe even make life easier by writing data back to tables for imports, modifications etc. The use of the Diagram is Ideal for looking up references to find tables etc..oh well... just have to keep spitting nails and working through them slowlythanks for all your replys...DaveThu, 06 Dec 2007 09:28:12 GMThb21l6http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic429673-9-1.aspxIn my experience, most companies DO have ERD diagrams/documentation for their database applications, but that information can be considered proprietary information and is not generally given to customers.Another possibility is that the referential integrity of an application can be completely contained within the application code, and NOT in the database itself. In this type of situation there are literally no Primary Key/Foreign Key relationships within the database.Thu, 06 Dec 2007 07:27:05 GMTKey DBAhttp://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic429673-9-1.aspxDocumentation is superfluous. The code is obvious.;)Thu, 06 Dec 2007 07:20:55 GMTChris Campbell-415954http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic429673-9-1.aspxI can't speak for all companies, but we use a separate CASE tool that has a data repository for logical modeling. We want something that is independent of SQL Server because we have systems on more than just that database platform.Some of our developers use SQL Server database diagrams for documentation, but they still must maintain their logical designs in the CASE tool.GregWed, 05 Dec 2007 09:15:15 GMTGreg Charleshttp://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic429673-9-1.aspxjust wondering...why do so many large software development companies not bother with relational Diagrams in their SQL server DBs'?For instance, there are a number of SQL DB systems ( including Microsofts ) that I'm currently reviewing, and non of them have Relational Diagrams added to them. their table structures are normalised but there is nothing inforcing the fact.Any ideas?cheersDaveWed, 05 Dec 2007 02:04:45 GMThb21l6