ER Diagramming Tool

  • This is probably the wrong forum to ask this.....but since this is the place I most visit....here goes:

    I religiously followed the ER diagramming pratices set out in my textbook when I was in college (some of you may recognize it: Database Management Systems by Raghu Ramakrishnan).

    Anyway, I know that there are many different conventions followed in "the industry", but I need an diagramming tool that helps me create an ER diagram using standard conventions (any one). I have MS Visio right now- the problem is that it does not separate logical and physical schemas. If I need to directly jump into creating tables, I might as well use Enterprise Manager.

    I've heard about ERwin- but I don't know much about it.

    Can anyone educate me about the choices out there, your experiences (good or bad) with any such tool and recommend one that I can evaluate (download 😉 ).

    All help appreciated beforehand.... 🙂

  • The version of Visio included in Enterprise Architect .NET Studio can reverse-engineer from tables to ER and vice versa. A bit costly, but not when compared to ERWin, which I belive is now called CA AllFusion Modeler. I think...

    Edited by - jpipes on 05/22/2003 2:46:42 PM

  • You can try the Sybase PowerDesigner 7.5 or 8 to do your ER diagram, and it will seperate the phisical Model from the conceptual model as wanted

    tung

    Luani


    Luani

  • Have you looked at the layering capabilities of Visio. It allows you to have multiple layers to a drawing. This way you can separate your physical and logical views, choose which layers are visible and even set a transparency level and color code each layer.

    Hope this helps,

    Richard

  • I used Popkin's System Architect in college. It will help with ERDs, DFDs, context diagrams etc. They have a free trial download. not usre how costly the full blown product is.

    HTH

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