Entity Relationship Diagram Options

The Entity Relationship Diagram Options dialog box allows you to define which database objects you want to include into the diagram as well as diagram display properties.

The dialog box has two tabs: DB Objects and Display Options

DB Objects

You can choose if you want to build E/R diagram for all database objects or only for selected subset of objects. For large databases that have thousands of objects it might be inefficient to build a single huge diagram. It might make sense to break it into several logical diagrams that show only logically related database objects, for example, Accounting Subsystem or Trading Subsystem. Once a diagram is created, it can be saved so that it can be easily re-used at later time. Saved diagrams can be accessed from E/R Diagrams folder in the Object Explorer tree.

• To display all database objects, choose Include All Database Objects radio button.
   
• To display selected database objects, choose Include Selected Objects radio button. In the database object list, choose main database objects that you want to include into a diagram. Optionally check Include Dependent Objects checkbox, if you also want to include in a diagram all objects, which are referenced by or referring to main objects explicitly selected in the list. You can also specify how many levels of dependent objects to include in a diagram. If you want to include or exclude all objects of a particular type into the diagram, for example, all tables or all views, use checkboxes in the Select Objects area. Checking/un-checking the object type checkbox will select or de-select all objects of this type in the object's list. You can edit the object selection afterwards manually by selecting only required objects.

Display Options
 

Display Level

For tables, you can specify how detail the information on diagram objects should be using Display Level control.
Use Columns & Indexes option to display information about all table columns as well as index information. This is the most detail option and a resulting diagram consumes most of a real estate. Table Name option includes only table names into a diagram and consumes the least amount of real estate. Primary Key and Foreign Keys options allow you to display on a diagram only columns that are part of a primary key or/and foreign keys. 

Referenced Only

Check Referenced Only checkbox, if you want to see only those database objects that have some kind of dependencies. For example, tables that do not have referential integrity constraints and are not references by views, stored procedures or triggers will be excluded from a diagram when you choose this option.
 

Page Grid

Check Page Grid checkbox to display a grid that represents printable pages. This is a very useful option if you want to re-arrange objects in a complex diagram manually before you you print it.

Background Grid

Checking this option will display a grid that can help you manually rearrange diagram objects layout. This grid is for display purposes only and is not included into a diagram print output.

Page Setup

The page size and margins are set according to default printer settings that can be modified using Page Setup button. See Using Diagram topic, for details on how to prepare the diagram for printing.