Visio database diagrams, associating columns

Question

I'm trying to be a good developer and create some documentation before I start programming my next project.

I have created a database schema diagram in Visio and created relationships between columns.

However, I am looking for a way to make the relationships between columns more clear. I want the arrow to connect column to column.

Is there a way to do this in Visio?

Baylor

Answer 1

You can use the Visio Drawing tools to force the Relationship Connector to glue to particular Connection Points on the Table Shapes:

1. Turn on Connection Points in the View menu.
2. On the standard toolbar find the Connector Tool just to the right of the Pointer Tool. Click on the little arrow and change to the Connection Point Tool.
3. Hold Ctrl and click on one of the Table Shapes at the point where you want to join the Relationship Connector.
4. Do the same on the other Table Shape.
5. Glue the ends of the Relationship Connector to the Connection Points you just added.
6. You will have broken the relationship. To fix it, select the Relationship Connector and view the definition of the relationship in the Database Properties Window.
7. Associate the fields again.

(This was tested with Visio Enterprise 2003.)

Horseshit

Awesome! I've been trying for a long time to get this to work. A note - it's better than you thought, just before step 5, I changed to the Pointer Tool. I moved each end of my connector to its new connection point and didn't lose the association. (Visio Professional 2003) – Baylor

Answer 2

If you click on the relationship arrows, green midpoints will appear. You can use these to drag the relationship arrow up and down. Be careful not to move the endpoints, though, because Visio will disassociate that connector from the table object.

Paresthesia

Answer 3

To my knowledge this is how visio draws it, and it is not possible to get it to point at an exact column. its kinda annoying, but I guess you learn to live with the FK markings

Abb

Answer 4

The answer is that it won't, but you can click and drag the lines around. The method I use to get around this is to name the FK relationships and display the names (there is an option to do this in Database->Options) or to label the relationships with the column.

Superfine