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Author Topic: How do control ERD model display levels  (Read 3365 times)

paulmaric

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How do control ERD model display levels
« on: March 07, 2017, 04:28:17 am »
I have an ERD diagram that was created by reverse engineering an existing database.  Even with just 2 tables joined, the model looks difficult to read, as the default is to display all columns, keys, indexes, and the names of joins.  I was able to use some of the visibility features of the product such as Features and Compartment Visibility to turn off certain things that just clutter the diagram, but it still seems to be lacking for a way to display leveling for the whole diagram, and making the entities auto-size as needed.  This is something that Navicat and Erwin do well, based on these pages:
https://www.navicat.com/manual/online_manual/en/navicat/win_manual/ObjectView.html
http://erwin-knowledgebase.com/index.php?View=entry&EntryID=447

Is it possible to have display levels in EA ERD diagrams that are similar to those?  If I have to manually change sizes, displays, etc for each object, rather than doing it as a whole, this would be very difficult to maintain.

qwerty

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Re: How do control ERD model display levels
« Reply #1 on: March 07, 2017, 08:51:23 am »
The tools you reference are ERD tools. EA is a UML tool that partially supports ERD. I wouldn't vote for a feature asking to improve that part. Maybe others would.

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Eve

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Re: How do control ERD model display levels
« Reply #2 on: March 07, 2017, 09:04:45 am »
EA is a graphical modelling tool that supports a wide range of languages and notations. (It may be built on a foundation of UML, but it's so much more than a UML tool)

For the original question... EA doesn't call it a display level, but it does have that capability.

http://sparxsystems.com/enterprise_architect_user_guide/13.0/modeling_tools/setfeaturevisibility.html

Set Feature Visibility allows you to turn off display of features within the display of any element. This can be individually or based on other criteria. For data modeling I think you'll find the stereotype filter useful to display different kinds of indexes/foreign keys etc. You can also hide all attributes (columns) or operations (which is how the previously mentioned indexes are stored)