[11.0.6 Beta] - Visual Database Documenter issues #1

A fully functional properly working app that is capable of generating usable database documentation (not to mention a visual one) is something I've been craving for a long time. The one included in SA is a very good start, for example, Flowchart for procedures is simply great. Thanks a lot.

But it also lacks in several areas. There's a lot that cannot be simply achieved by I do hope you'll manage to do a few of them better (than now).

#1. Having an ERD to visually describe a database is a must. But having only one is simply not enough. We need more of them, not just the whole picture. That gets useless even on a moderately small database. I know it's hard to derive an aspect which entities to put in an ERD, which ones to exclude and put into another.

But check this one:

Neither very nice looking, nor neatly and methodically arranged.

#2. Let's magnify it a bit, and check the overlapping parts. Those aren't very helpful for someone trying to grasp the concept.

#3. Data Access Dependencies diagram is also great and very useful. Except in its present form.
Check this:

Completely useless. Data Dependency Diagrams (DDDs :) are much more usable when connected to specific objects. For example, I couldn't care less about the complex network of data dependency. What I do care about, though, is the data dependency of this stored procedure. And the DDD for that view. I don't need that large image, which isn't comprehensible anyway. I need that small DDDs for each and every object which explains the data dependency for that object, and for that object only. If it depends on other objects having their own DD (eg. a stored procedure might query views or a view might use functions) then I'd like to see their DDD there, after clicking on a link that brings me to that page.

#4. Navigation issue

Check this:

I can scroll. But I cannot collapse item list of the types I'm currently not interested in. Meaning that to get to some other types (Sequences, Roles, etc) that might (or might not) be at the end of the TOC, I may have to scroll a long way down. A search AND/OR (preferrably AND) filter would be a welcome addition to the TOC.

Thank you very much for reporting them. There is partial solution to that issue. You can select previously saved schema diagram instead of dynamically generated. Dynamically generated have their limits of course. For the saved you can create them using the provided Database Modeling tool, manually arrange and resize tables and other objects to your liking and save the model.

In the model you can group different tables, kind of create separate sections. That isn't the same as multiple diagrams and may take much time when dealing with many tables, but in the end might enable to achieve similar result. Please see http://www.softtreetech.com/sqlassist/images/er_diagram_colors.png