Visio IDEF1X Format
Posted by Steve BrownleeJun 18
I just discovered, about 4 days ago, that you can format Visio database diagrams in the IDEF1X format. While IDEF1X has many shortcomings, I have to say I find it much easier to understand the relationships and constraints at a quick view in this format rather than the standard format.
Granted I’m still running the 2001 version of Visio for Enterprise Architects, so I’m sure that recent releases have more formats in which to view an object model. However, for the time being, I’m having fun with opening all my old schemas and changing their format.
To get your model in this format, you choose the following menu option:
Database > Options > Document…
Then in the General tab, select IDEF1X as the symbol set.


Curious what you use to generate your diagrams in the first place? Right now I’m using JDeveloper to reverse engineer my Oracle stuff but it’s sort of overload for what I need.
I use Visio sometimes, and other times I use TOAD. It all depends on the complexity of the domain that I want to reverse engineer.