Autodoc - Dia Output

The Dia outputs have been created for Dia version 0.90 or greater, however it is suggested that Dia 0.91 be used as it seems to be the most reliable.

The two outputs differ only in line style. One has straight lines (good for large schemas) and the other uses the auto-placing zigzag lines (good for small schemas).

Exported Details

  • Primary Key
  • Foreign Keys relating tables
  • Column Type and Default Value
  • Constraints on a column (CHECK statements)
  • Groups initially defined by constraints
  • SERIAL extraction

Overlapping boxes?

There are a number of things that the Dia output is not capable of accomplishing by itself, including placing the boxes in a reasonable location. This feature will need to be implemented in Dia itself.

Until the Dia people implement a best placement algorithm, you will need to move the various boxes around on your own. For convenience, schemas have been grouped so that you can do a coarse placement of schemas prior to placing individual tables into the proper location. Ungrouping the tables is accomplished by selecting the Schema Object, Right Click -> Objects -> Ungroup.

Trouble Shooting

Having problems with Dia crashing while attempting to load the file? Be sure to compile Dia with configure --enable-freetype.

Example 1. Dia Output

After moving around all of the relations to reasonable locations, have Dia export the image as a png file for use in web pages or other material. Below is one possibility for the Autodoc regression database.



$Date: 2007/07/06 21:11:26 $ Home Feedback
Copyright © 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 Rod Taylor.