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I have an Oracle database, and I would like to create an ERD in Visio 2007 Pro.

I have so far looked at DBMS_METADATA.GET_DDL commands to generate DDL. I know that I can import an Access DB into Visio, but it seems that Access understands an SQL dialect which is different from Oracle, so I would need to tweak every Create Table command to change the data types.

Is there a simple way to create an ERD using DDL in Visio Pro 2007?

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  • I don't have Visio handy anymore (so I am not putting this down as an answer but maybe a hint?), but I remember that is was quite simple using an ODBC connection and Visio's "reverse engineer" feature (this lets you select all the items you want and it'll go and make you the erd)
    – Harrison
    Feb 3, 2011 at 22:04
  • I did check out the Reverse Engineer wizard in Visio, and unfortunately the Oracle database itself is on a firewalled server, and I cannot access it directly from my workstation, hence the need for a ddl intermediary step.
    – kg.
    Feb 3, 2011 at 22:08
  • If you have the DDL, can you import that into a local Oracle XE (free version) database, then reverse engineer from there ? And does it have to be Visio. Oracle's free SQL Data Modeller will import from a DDL file.
    – Gary
    Feb 3, 2011 at 22:32
  • Thanks for the suggestions, Gary. I am looking to use Visio so the diagram can be embedded into word docs and remain editable. I will take a look at Oracle XE.
    – kg.
    Feb 3, 2011 at 23:18

1 Answer 1

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All you need is configured ODBC connection to Oracle DB

    1. Install Oracle Client SW (download from otn.oracle.com). I recommend installing same version as your Oracle DB
    2. Define connection in tnsnames.ora
    3. Create and test ODBC connection to Oracle DB in Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Data Sources (ODBC) - use Oracle's driver in your ORA_HOME, use connection defined in tnsnames.ora
    4. Importing from defined ODBC connection to Oracle should be same as importing from Access DB
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  • If you're on a 64Bit machine and run a 32Bit Version of Visio, you need to add the connection via C:\Windows\SysWOW64\odbcad32.exe instead of step 3
    – Boern
    Dec 15, 2015 at 8:56

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