Reverse Engineer SQL2005, Visio 2007

[TamedTech]

Morning Guys,

I'm pretty new to visio, Only been playing around for about a week or so now on the trial edition of 2007 which I downloaded, I've so far been pretty impressed, worked on a couple of database concepts and things like that.

I've got a database sat on my remote SQL2005 server and I'd love to have it all plotted nicely with diagrams right here beside me whilst developing my application, as trying to picture the damn thing in my head is a total nightmare lol. Will visio allow me to do this? I gather that this is what the reverse engineering tool is for? Is that right?

I need some really simple step-by-step style instructions on how to achieve this, I did take a couple of shots at it but to be honest, the list of different drivers and datasource types became a little overwhelming and I didnt really know what was my best route.

Also, how complex can the diagrams be made? It would be great If i could see the datatypes of every column directly on the printed diagram, this is somthing I'm yet to figure out.

Can anyone offer some advice on this stuff?

Thanks guys, look forward to talking with you.

Rob

 

[TamedTech]

Update guys,

I've managed to get my connection to the server now and its pulling everything down very nicely, but my diagrams still lack the amount of detail i'd like to see on them. They list all the column names, keys and lines for the relationships, but no detail on the columns themselves, like datatype, length and so forth, which are all quite important attributes.

Any idea if I can display those on the chart?

Thanks,

Rob

 

[neemi]

Hi,

Did you manage to figure out the datatype thingy?

I've just started playing around with Visio 2007 this yesterday! Datatypes can be displayed by selecting "Database" from your menu. Then select "Options" and then "Document". Under the "Table" tab you can select what details to view including the datatypes.

Hope it helps.

Neemi

 

[TamedTech]

Thanks Neemi,

I hadnt figured that out, your advice was a great help, thanks mate.

Rob