Model perspective displays tables and their relationships in an entity relationship diagram. You can switch to the perspective using the toolbar button or “Window” menu.
Double-click any table node in the “Database Explorer” to add the table to the diagram. Or, simply drag the table and drop it at a proper position in the diagram. You can also right-click on a table node in the “Database Explorer”, and choose “Add Related Tables to Diagram” menu option to add the table and all its related tables to the diagram.
The tables are displayed with their column definitions. The required (not null) columns are shown in bold. The primary key columns are marked with key icons. The foreign key relationships and user defined master-detail relationships are displayed as connections among tables. The connections start from the primary key (master table) columns and point to the foreign key (detail table) columns.
You can click a table in the diagram, and drag it to a proper position. Or, click a table to highlight it, and press the “Delete” key to remove it from the diagram.
After you are satisfied with the layout, you can invoke the “File” menu to save the diagram or print it out. You can also create a new diagram by selecting the “New Diagram” menu option, or open a saved diagram using the “Open Diagram…” menu option.
The model view has a second toolbar to help layout the diagram and customize its fonts and colors. The outline view shows a thumbnail image of the diagram to help visualize large diagrams. The options menu allows users to add tables, notes and texts to the diagram and create or modify table relationships. We will describe these features in detail in following sections.