Entity Relationship Diagram Software Engineering

Entity Relationship Diagram (aka ER Diagram, E-R Diagram, ERD) is a time-tested and widespread software development and software engineering method for data modeling, illustrating the logical structure of databases and system design. For ERDs construction are used three basic elements: entities, attributes, and relationships. Chen's notation for ERD supposes the use of rectangles (boxes) to represent entities and diamonds to depict relationships between first-class objects. This notation is popular when creating conceptual data models of information systems. Another standardized notation for ER diagrams is Crow's foot notation. ConceptDraw DIAGRAM as a powerful Entity Relationship Diagram software engineering provides the tools of Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) solution from Software Development area of ConceptDraw Solution Park for instantly describing databases using ERDs of Crow’s Foot and Chen’s notations. Use the predesigned vector elements for both these notations from 2 libraries included to Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) solution.

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.

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.

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.

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.

ConceptDraw DIAGRAM Database Modeling Software

ConceptDraw DIAGRAM is a very easy-to-use and intuitive database design tool which can save you hundreds of work hours. See database diagram samples created with ConceptDraw DIAGRAM database modeling database diagram software.

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.

ER diagram tool for OS X

ER diagram is the most popular database design tool which lets create graphical representations of database tables, their columns and also relationships. As for the Mac users, they are very interested in powerful database diagramming tools and ER diagram tool for OS X to design professional looking E-R Diagrams and ERD drawings. ConceptDraw DIAGRAM software on Mac OS X gives the ability to easy draw ERDs.

Mechanical Drawing Software

It is impossible to imagine mechanical engineering without drawings which represent various mechanical schemes and designs. ConceptDraw DIAGRAM diagramming and vector drawing software supplied with Mechanical Engineering solution from the Engineering area of ConceptDraw Solution Park offers the set of useful tools which make it a powerful Mechanical Drawing Software.

Entity Relationship Diagram - ERD - Software for Design Chen ER Diagrams

The Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) solution from ConceptDraw Solution Park extends ConceptDraw DIAGRAM ector graphics and diagramming software with the ability to describe a database using the Entity-Relationship (Chen) model. Use it for design your ERDs and verify that ConceptDraw DIAGRAM offers the best ERD diagrams software tools for design element Chen notation.