Entity Relationship Diagram Software for Mac

Entity Relationship Model

One of the most popular semantic data models is the "entity-relationship" model (often called ER-model). Most of the modern approaches to the database (mainly relational) design are based on the usage of different versions of ER- model. The model was proposed by Peter Chen in 1976. Domain modeling is based on the use of graphic charts, including a small number of heterogeneous components. The simplicity and the presentation clarity of the conceptual basis of these ER-model schemes led to its widespread deployment in the CASE-systems that support automatic design of relational databases.

The basic concepts of ER-models are the entity, the relation and attribute. An entity is a real or abstract object, information about which should be kept and be available. The entity in an ER-model diagram is represented by a rectangle containing the name of the entity. In this case, the name of the entity is not a particular instance of this entity, but a label for the whole entity. Although it would be more correct to use such terms as ‘an entity type’ and ‘an instance of the entity type’ to avoid verbosity, in cases where it does not lead to ambiguity, the term “entity” is used in the meaning of the entity type. For instance, let’s think of an entity named “airport”. In this case, “airport” is the entity type, and “Heathrow” or “Charles de Gaulle” are the instances of this entity.

A relation is a graphically depicted association between two entities. As well as the entity, a relation is a typical concept, all instances of the linked entity types are subject to the rules established by the connecting. Therefore, it is more correct to speak about the relationship type made between types of entities and about the instances of relationship types made between instances of the entity type. In common ER-model this association is always binary and can exist between two different entity types or can be recursive.

Design elements Peter Chen and Crow's Foot notation

ConceptDraw DIAGRAM is a famous Entity Relationship Diagram software for MacOS which gives the ability to describe visually the databases using the Chen’s notation icons and Crow’s Foot notation icons for drawing ER diagram (ERD).

Example 1. Entity Relationship Diagram Software for Mac

ConceptDraw DIAGRAM was developed especially for a reason of providing the convenience for macOS operating system, designed and created especially for Mac users. The difference between this application, comparing to the other Visio alternatives, which are also suitable for Mac, is that it offers to use the pre-made solutions, available both on this site and in another application, developed by the CS Odessa team of IT specialists — ConceptDraw STORE. Having ConceptDraw DIAGRAM drawing software means having an opportunity to create great looking as well as smart ERD diagrams, as this application provides all of the necessary tools to have the drawings done within only a couple of hours or even minutes, depending on how familiar you are already with this software.

Thus, once you have to create some ER-model, showing the entities, the relations between them as well as the attributes, then the best option for such drawings would be using ConceptDraw DIAGRAM which is very popular among software engineers being used for different purposes. Downloading this Entity Relationship Diagram software for Mac OSX allows you to describe any needed databases visually using the Chen’s notation icons as well as Crow’s Foot one’s icons in order to create the very professionally looking ER diagrams (ERDs) as this is a very good alternative of MS Visio for Mac.

Example 2. ERD Symbols — Chen's Notation

The Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) solution can be downloaded from this site or from ConceptDraw STORE application, enabling you to use both stencil libraries containing all together 45 vector graphic symbols, which will be useful in creating the needed ER diagram. Get it today to have the smart looking result already by tomorrow.

Example 3. Entity Relationship Diagrams solution

Use unique ConceptDraw DIAGRAM diagramming and vector drawing software enhanced with Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) solution to draw ER diagrams using Chen's or Crow's Foot notations on your Macintosh computers.

No other Entity Relationship Diagrams software gives you all this:

• Design and document using a wide range of pre-drawn erd shapes and smart connectors.
• Great value for the money, only $199 dollars.
• Free technology support.
• Free examples and built-in templates to help you draw entity relationship diagrams rapidly.