> Can anyone advice about a tool to visualize a database schema? Ideally, I would like something that takes the SQL definition of a schema or database > (essentially the output of pg_dump) and produces a graphical representation of the tables, constraints and indexes which can be moved around for ease of > visualization (something like the "Graphical query builder" that comes with pgAdmin =>1.14).
A simple method for this, open source cross-platform and work for various RDBMS, is the following: 1. Download SQL Power Architect at https://code.google.com/p/power-architect/downloads/list (it's a java app so you need a JVM installed and JDBC drivers for the RDBMS to use)
+1 on SQL Power Architect. I use it a lot.
--Scott
2. Run it, right click in left pane and choose "Add source connection" -> "New connection..." to create a connection for your db 3. Expand the connection and the database and then simply drag and drop the schema to the right pane. 4. Click on "Automatic layout" in the toolbar (it's the icon that looks like three connected boxes and a green triangle)
From there you can examine the database. There are some limitations, constraints for example, so for more complicated tools look into ERD-tools as suggested by John in another reply.
