Good tool to visualise database schema? [closed]

Answer 1

Have you tried the arrange > auto arrange function in MySQL Workbench. It may save you from manually moving the tables around.

Answer 2

I like this tool, called simply DbSchema. It's written in Java so it runs on OS X, Windows, or Linux. It's a little clunky, especially when it comes to printing, but from my experience they're all like that. This one is the best of the several I've tried. It makes nice, clear diagrams. Free trial. Costs about $120 depending on how many licenses you buy.

Answer 3

ER/Studio by Embarcadero is one of the costlier ones, but the hierarchical mode it present is by far the best one for understanding database models. It makes query writing the easiest task in the world.

It also is incredible with normalization, denormalization, warehousing, documentation, etc.

The downside is that it is a pretty expensive tool especially when you go multiplatform.

Answer 4

Visio professional has a database reverse-engineering tool built into it. You should be able to use it with MySQL through an ODBC driver. It works best when you reverse engineer the database and then create the diagrams by dragging them off the tables and views panel. It will drag any foreign key objects and put them on the diagram as well.

Answer 5

A different approach, but if you're using Ruby on Rails try RailRoad: http://railroad.rubyforge.org

Answer 6

I would recommend Toad data modeller