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.

ER Diagram Styles

When creating ER diagrams, you can apply different color ER diagram styles and also notation styles. ConceptDraw DIAGRAM enhanced with Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) Solution gives the ability to draw visual and attractive ER Diagrams using the style icons from Crow’s Foot notation and Chen's notation professionally designed and offered by ERD Chen's Notation and ERD Crow’s Foot Notation libraries.

Entity Relationship Diagram - ERD - Software for Design Crows Foot ER Diagrams

ER-model is a data model which lets describe the conceptual schemes in a specific subject area. It can help to highlight the key entities and specify relationships that can be established between these entities. During the database design, it is realized the transformation of ER model into certain database scheme based on the chosen data model (relational, object, network, etc.). There are used two notations for ERDs: Crow's Foot and Chen's. Crow's Foot notation proposed by Gordon Everest represents the entity by rectangle containing its name (name must be unique within this model), and relation - by the line which links two entities involved in relationship. The relationship's plurality is graphically indicated by a "plug" on the end of the link, the optionality - by a circle. Entity-Relationship Diagrams based on Crow's Foot notation can be easily drawn using the ConceptDraw DIAGRAM. Extended with Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) solution, it is the best ERD diagrams software with powerful tools and ready design elements for Crow's Foot and Chen notations.

Entity Relationship Diagram Examples

Creation of Entity-Relationship (ER) model is a visual representation the structure of a business database, where data equates to entities or objects, which are linked by defined relationships expressing dependencies and requirements. By the nature, the ER model is an abstract visualization, a first step in design process towards creating a logical and functional database. ConceptDraw DIAGRAM professional software gives the ability to effectively describe a database using the Entity-Relationship model. Included to ConceptDraw Solution Park, the Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) solution contains the set of predesigned vector icons advocated by Chen's and Crow’s Foot notations that both can be used for data modeling and describing a database. Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) solution includes also helpful templates and incredibly large collection of varied Entity Relationship Diagram examples and samples offered at ConceptDraw STORE. Each of them can be used to develop your own model of a database of arbitrary complexity.

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.

Drawing ER diagrams on a Mac

The drawing of ER diagrams on a Mac, PC with Windows or on the computer with cross-platform environment is smooth and incredibly easy when you have professional ERD drawing software tool well-suited for both these platforms. ConceptDraw DIAGRAM software extended with Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) solution from Software Development Area of ConceptDraw Solution Park is certainly the best tool for drawing ER diagrams. Use the powerful drawing tools of the Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) solution, built-in templates, samples, examples and 2 libraries ERD Chen's Notation and ERD Crow’s Foot Notation with numerous predesigned vector objects for easy drawing the ER diagram of any type that you need. A few simple steps will allow you to achieve the best result and design great-looking ER diagram: drag the required vector objects from the libraries offered by Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) Solution on your document, connect them in a needed order, apply the commands from the Action menus of these objects, edit the diagram's style with Line, Fill, Shadow and Text tools.

ConceptDraw DIAGRAM ER Diagram Tool

Entity-relationship model, also called ER-model, is the main tool of domain modeling on the stage of conceptual design. The modeling of domain data structures is based on the use of graphical tools - Entity-Relationship diagrams (ER-diagrams). The core concepts of ER-Diagram are entity, attribute and relationship. ER-diagram lets visually represent the entities, helps effectively document all properties of designed system and to detail the data storages. To represent the elements at ER-model are commonly used Chen’s notation and Crow’s foot notation, each has its pros and cons. The entity on ER-diagram is represented in the form of rectangle, which specifies its name. An attribute is a property of the entity and relationship is an interaction between the entities. The relationship between two entities is called binary, between more than two entities - ternary. Specific software, such as ConceptDraw DIAGRAM with Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) solution from ConceptDraw Solution Park is helpful for easy creation Entity-Relationship Diagrams.

How to Draw ER Diagrams

An Entity Relationship (ER) Diagram is a type of flowchart that illustrates the logical structure of databases, how the different entities, such as people, objects or concepts relate to each other within a given system. How to draw ER Diagrams fast and easy? ConceptDraw DIAGRAM diagramming and vector drawing software enhanced with Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) solution from Software Development area of ConceptDraw Solution Park offers you the powerful abilities of designing the ER Diagrams and ERD drawings without efforts. This solution includes a lot of predesigned icons advocated by popular Chen's and Crow’s Foot notations, which can be used when describing an enterprise database and depicting it by abstract way. Simply drag the required objects to ConceptDraw document, connect them in a desired way and make style settings. But the easiest and fastest way of drawing ERDs is to make them on the base of ready-to-use Chen ERD and Crow's Foot ERD templates, which are both represented at ConceptDraw STORE.

Data Modeling with Entity Relationship Diagram

Data modeling is actively applied in analysis and uses wide set of methods for description the data requirements in a system. One of the most popular and well-known is the ERD method of database modeling. The best ERD tool for the Mac and Windows is ConceptDraw DIAGRAM software extended with the Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) solution from the Software Development Area for ConceptDraw Solution Park, which is sharpened for professional ERD drawing and data modeling with Entity Relationship Diagram.

Bank UML Diagram

You need design a Bank UML Diagram? Now, thanks to the ConceptDraw DIAGRAM diagramming and vector drawing software extended with ATM UML Diagrams Solution from the Software Development Area, you can design without efforts any type of Bank UML Diagram you want - Class, Activity, Communication, Component, Composite structure, Deployment, Interaction overview, Object, Package, Profile, Sequence, State machine, Timing, Use case.