I am using toad to create some ER diagrams using the Database->Report->ER Diagram menu option. I find it extremely useful to create diagrams that reflect the relationships between tables within a small business area.
I am using right-angle connections (I like them very much).
One of the things that I find very,very annoying are the connectors between the tables. As I move the tables in the diagram they don't reposition themselves in order to connect the borders that are the closest to each other.
Take a look at the screenshot below. For instance, check out the connector between Table2 and Table3. It's not a straight line. Even if I move Table 3, it doesn't become a straight line. I can fix it though, by clicking the connector and then moving up the connector segment that is parallel with the top/south borders. That's one thing. The other one is the connector between Table3 and Table 4. It connects the left border of Table 4 with the bottom border of Table 3. Ideally I wanted to connect the top border of table 4 with the bottom border of table 3. How can I do that? The only things that seem to move when I drag them are the interior segments. After some trial and error I managed to move of the interior segments of the connector such that the connector doesn't overlap with the Table 4 anymore, then I moved Table 4 and the connector repositioned itself as I expected
When I select a connector, why can't I snap the insertion point of the connector to another border (of the same table) directly? If it worked, I could have moved the insertion point from the left border to the top border.
Are there any options to make the app reposition the connectors nicely ? What are the rules?
I find it very frustrating because I have to spend so much time arranging the tables to get the connectors to position properly and often it is hit and miss.
Is there any documentation that I've missed that describes all this in detail?
As the owner of Toad for Oracle license (any commercial license) you are entitled to install and use Toad Data Modeler. Toad Data Modeler team has worked heavily on line management for their upcoming release - Toad Data Modeler 5.2 - it should be out sometime in March, 2014. You are going to be able to modify anchor points and a lot more - line management got much more streamlined.
Hi, guys. I just downloaded version 12.5 and it has the same issues I still cannot move the bloody connectors the way I want. The features that are in Data Modeler 5.2 didn’t make it to 12.5! When can I expect them in Toad as well?
Just so I am 100% clear - you want the toad 12.5 built-in ER diagrammer to work the same way as the newer 5.2 version of toad data modeler? I don’t think that’s currently on the roadmap per se - maybe reasonable expectation, but we may have totally missed that one. I’ll need to talk to the PM and our Czech dev team who do both TDM and the diagrammer insidde toad itself. So this may take a day or two for answers …
PS - did you not just use the external toad data modeler as Lenka suggested? In other words it does work the way you want in TDM outside of toad, just not yet in the builtin er diagrammer inside of toad. Can you use TDM for now?
Maybe I misunderstood, but yes, I thought the ER diagrammer in TO is just a component from the TDM product, that was integrated in TO. I actually started to look at how I can open the toad diagrams in TDM but it doesn’t seem possible. The erx extension is not in the TDM list of supported extensions.
The TO diagrammer is very handy because I can drag and drop tables from the schema browser and I can quickly wip up a diagram for a specific area. Ultimately I think will move to TDM. I am using these diagrams in read-only mode just to understand the system.
Yes - Toad for Oracle borrowed some code from TDM to radically improve the old Toad ER diagrammer a few years back. So the toad code would need updated/refreshed for the mods made in TDm - and I will talk to Czech team about that on our next conf call in a week or so. But in the meantime, the ER diagram files should be openable in TDM. While the file names might be different, the format is supposed to be the same. I also thought we had made the file ext names the same - but memory not as releiable these days now that I’m way past 50
PS - TDM offers an option to import toad ERX files – main menu->import->import toad erx. So you can import ER diagrams created in Toad ER Diagrammer with .ERX extension into Toad Data Modeler.
Hi, for more information about how to import Toad for Oracle ER Diagrams and how to work with Object Explorer in Toad Data Modeler please visit the following page:
I still cannot move the bloody connectors the way I want. The features that are in Data Modeler 5.2 didn’t make it to 12.5! When can I expect them in Toad as well?