A Database design and entity relationship diagram (ERD) tool for Mac OS X. A Database design and entity relationship diagram (ERD) tool for Mac OS X. SQLEditor replaces typing SQL by hand with dragging, dropping and clicking.
Does anyone know a comprehensive Mac app to create SQL Diagramms?I think http://ondras.zarovi.cz/sql/demo/ is quite good, but it's a little bit too basic.
I would like to create the database schema, the relations between the tables (including labels for e.g. n:m relations), add comments, export to SQL, and so on to run from my Mac.
bmike♦
10 Answers
MySQL Workbench is good enough for most programming demands. You can create EER Model and can also synchronize the model with DB Changes or vice versa. You can use it with no cost as it's a open-source application. I have been using MySQL for a year and it is very useful for me. I recommend it to you if you don't need any enterprise features and performance.
The only Mac only tool I know (and I would love to hear of others here) is SQLEditor. Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be any support for Stored Procedures or other objects beyond tables and views.
There are also cross-platform solutions (mostly Java-based). In a recent search I evaluated DBWrench and DBVisualizer. When all was said and done, I decided to stay with a Windows solution running under Parallels.
Andrew LazarusAndrew LazarusMySQL Workbench is great, though I found that in a lot of cases OmniGraffle works wonderful, especially if you're not so much into 'doing it painfully correct according to theory learnt at university' but rather getting the job done.
You might want to check out the Navicat line of products. I use Navicat Premium and it's a really great all-in-one tool for many DBs, including MySQL, Postgres, SQLITE, Oracle, and MS SQL Server. It includes a Model tab where you can view and edit existing DBs or create de novo ones, sketch everything out, define relationships, export SQL, have access to an auto-layout function, and all sorts of other goodies.
There are several versions stepping up to the Premium product, including a separate Data Modeler program, so you'll have to browse around to see what fits your needs. It will set you back a little bit of cash, depending on the version, but you can download a 30-day free trial to make sure it's what you need.
I hope this helps!
The free SQL tool of choice for me is SQuirreLSQL. It is a Java application, but very responsive, and you can install both DB drivers and plugins from it, and one of them allows for reverse-engineering and diagramming databases.
Aqua Data Studio runs on Mac OS X as a mixed Cocoa/Java application, with native performance, and includes Entity-Relationship modeling capabilities.
I also use Vertabelo and I can recommend it, too. It is 100% web-based. You can work on your models either in Chrome, or in Safari (the support for Safari browser was added a few month ago). Vertabelo's graphical tools for designing database models are simply amazing! Simple and intuitive, and yet very comprehensive and professional. There's no desktop license, no downloads and no installation. You can work remotely from any computer connected to the web. If you would like to get to know how Vertabelo works, you can try it without any registration: https://my.vertabelo.com/try
DBSchema is also awesome. Best thing is that you can do reverse engineering as well as modeling together at once. After you change the diagram, you change the database; you can import those changes back in the diagram.
The only flaw is ordering of column names in the diagrams - that do not necessarily match with the ordinality of the column names in the real database if you do so.
I would rate it to be one of the super nice applications.
IconDaemonBasic Entity Relationship Diagram
Check out http://www.yworks.com/en/index.html, might not be what you are looking for but it has ER modelling and others...
I recommend Vertabelo. Vertabelo is an online database designer working under Chrome developed by company I work for.
The most important feature of this tool is that it allow to share database models across the team and collaborate on them via web browser.
Others Vertabelo features include:
- Model versioning
- Support for PosgreSql, MySQL, Oracle, MS SQL Server, DB2, SQLite, HSQLDB
- Dynamic/Visual search
- Live database model validation
- Reverse engineering
Vertabelo is free to use for smaller projects (up to 3 models and 20 tables within each model) and have commercial versions for larger database projects.
My preferred tool for modeling in OS X, is Visual Paradigm (VP-UML). They have a free community edition, which is great for creating ERD - but if you want to generate the DDL from your ERD, you'll need to purchase the standard edition.
It's also cross-platform, so that's another boon.
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Entity Relationship Diagram
An entity relationship diagram, also called entity relationship model, is a graphical representation of entities and their relationships to each other, typically used in computing in regard to the organization of data within databases or information systems.
An entity relationship diagram is a specialized graphic that illustrates the relationships between entities in a database. Also Known As: ER Diagram, E-R Diagram, ERD.
ER Diagram Software
ER Diagram software is an excellent communications tool, which can be used to confirm business requirements and provide direction to the architecture and design team as they move forward with physical database design rapidly.
Edraw Max is ideal for building entity relationship diagrams, Chen ERD, Express-G diagram, ORM diagram, Martin ERD and database model diagram. It's affordable and easy for illustrating the entity relationship diagrams by simply drag and drop. Then add a connector among the entity relationship shapes, style and color that you want, An additional arrow style can be attached to the connector to illustrate the relationship between the different entities.
System Requirements
Works on Windows 7, 8, 10, XP, Vista and Citrix
Works on 32 and 64 bit Windows
Compatible with Linux distributions such as Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, etc
Tagged on: Matrix Template
Software Features
- Functionality: Automatic functions supported by drag and drop interface and point-and-click editor Reliability: Trusted by users around the world. Over 6 million downloads.
- Usability: Is to use with predefined shapes, drag-and-drop interface and ready-made templates and examples.
- Efficiency: Can generate an entity relationship diagram in less than 10 minutes. What is more, over 200 types of diagrams are supported.
- Maintainability: Offers free technology support and lifelong upgrade chance.
- Compatibility: compatible with MS programs.
Symbols of Entity Relationship Diagram
Edraw Max supports five types of entity relationship diagram. The different entity relationship diagram is using the different symbols to represent the relationships between entities in a database for most information management projects. But ER diagrams often use boxes to represent entities. Diamonds are normally used to represent relationships and ovals are used to symbolize attributes.
Entity Relationship Symbols
Entities Symbol: Entity instance-person, place, object, event, concept
Relationships Symbol: Relationship instance-link between entities
Symbols of Chen ERD
The following symbols of entity relationship diagram is based on the Chen ERD. Chen ERD uses rectangles to represent entities, and diamonds to represent relationships appropriate for first-class objects. If an entity set participates in a relationship set, they are connected with a line. Attributes are drawn as ovals and are connected with a line to exactly one entity or relationship set.
Symbols of Martin ERD
The following Martin ERD symbols is based on the symbols used in the Martin notation to draw object-oriented analysis and design diagrams.
Symbols of ORM Diagram

Object Role Modeling is commonly used to describes the database of a model for information and rules analysis, ontological analysis, and data modeling in the field of software engineering: what objects may exist, what object classes they belong to, and what relationships exist between objects.
What is the shortcut to create an entity relationship diagram?
Entity Relationship Diagram Tool For Mac
Start to Draw an Entity Relationship Diagram
The steps involved in creating an entity relationship diagram are:
Identify the entities.
Determine all significant interactions.
Analyze the nature of the interactions.
Draw the entity relationship diagram.
When you create an entity relationship diagram, one of the first things that you should consider is the entities about which you wish to record information. For example, in a family database, you probably wish to record information about member, house, job, love, contact, etc.
However, in a relational database you record not only details about the entities but also the relationship between them. For example, in the family, members are assigned to house and every member is appointed to be in charge of each love and job.
Entities are the 'things' about which you wish to record information in a database. There are relationships between entities which fall into three types: one-one, one-many, many-many. Any many-many relationship must be resolved into two one-many relationships.
Itool For Mac
Single Entity Relationship
Binary Entity Relationship
An entity relationship diagram example, showing a simple database for the business order process.
Best Entity Relationship Diagram Tools
The entity relationship diagram shown in the above image contains six entities - supplier, customer, order, item, product and shipment. There are five kinds of relationship such as supplied by, requested on, used in, included on and sent by. In our example, every entity includes some attributes associated with each entity. In a real-world example, each one of these would likely have many different attributes.