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ERD Symbols and Meanings

Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) is a popular software engineering tool for database modeling and illustration the logical structure of databases, which uses one of two notations - Chen's or Crow’s Foot. Crow's foot notation is effective when used in software engineering, information engineering, structured systems analysis and design. Each of these notations applies its own set of ERD symbols. Crow's foot diagrams use boxes to represent entities and lines between these boxes to show relationships. Varied shapes at the ends of lines depict the cardinality of a given relationship. Chen's ERD notation is more detailed way to represent entities and relationships. ConceptDraw DIAGRAM application enhanced with all-inclusive Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) solution allows design professional ER diagrams with Chen's or Crow’s Foot notation on your choice. It contains the full set of ready-to-use standardized ERD symbols and meanings helpful for quickly drawing, collection of predesigned ERD samples, examples and templates. ConceptDraw Pro is a great alternative to Visio for Mac users as it offers more features and can easily handle the most demanding professional needs.
How to Build an Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD)
How to Build an Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD)

Entity Relationship Diagram Symbols

The semantic modeling method nowadays is successfully applied in database structure design. It is effective method of modeling the data structures, which is based on the meaning of these data. As a tool of semantic modeling, there are used different types of Entity-Relationship Diagrams. Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) is applied to visually and clearly represent a structure of a business database. The main components of ERDs are: entity, relation and attributes. An entity is a class of similar objects in the model, each entity is depicted in the form of rectangle and has the name expressed by a noun. Relation is shown in the form of non-directional line that connects two entities. There are several notation styles used for ERDs: information engineering style, Chen style, Bachman style, Martin Style. The Entity Relationship Diagram symbols used for professional ERD drawing are predesigned by professionals and collected in the libraries of the Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) solution for ConceptDraw DIAGRAM software.

UML Deployment Diagram. Design Elements

UML Deployment diagram describes the hardware used in system implementations and the execution environments and artifacts deployed on the hardware. ConceptDraw has 393 vector stencils in the 13 libraries that helps you to start using software for designing your own UML Diagrams. You can use the appropriate stencils of UML notation from UML Deployment library.

Campus Area Networks (CAN). Computer and Network Examples

Campus Area Network (CAN) is a computer network which provides wireless access to the Internet or LAN for the users located in two or more buildings on the limited geographical area, or in the open space surrounding these buildings. Campus Area Network is usually set in campus of a university or college, but the same kind of planning and design can be applied for other purposes, for enterprises, office buildings, military bases, industrial complexes, public places like supermarkets, entertainment centers, etc. Another form of temporary CAN can exist during some special events such as rallies, music festivals. The elementary Campus Area Network can also arise spontaneously, due to the distance of spread the radio signals from the access points that are not limited by buildings walls. It is also sensible to have additional access points for the larger and more complex CANs, located at specially places chosen for serving clients. Design easy diagrams and schemes for the Campus Area Networks with Computer Network Diagrams solution for ConceptDraw DIAGRAM.