Relationship levels, follow direction, layered and star arrangements, and what clicking, double-clicking and dragging do.
The controls
Relationship levels (1–5) — how many relationships to follow out from
the table in the centre. Each box is badged L0, L1 and so on to
show how far out it is.
Follow — References shows what this table points at,
Referenced by shows what points at it, Both shows both. Start with
References; Both can bring in a great many tables at once.
Arrangement — Layered puts a column per level, and suits
following a chain of tables. Star puts the table in the centre with a ring per
level, and suits looking at one table and its neighbours. Switching rearranges the boxes
you already have.
If more than 80 boxes would be drawn, the diagram stops there and tells you how many more
were reachable. Lower the levels or narrow Follow to see a smaller area.
Moving around
Click a box to select it and open its editor below the diagram.
Double-click a box to redraw the diagram around that table. You can also
use Expand from…, or select the table in the list.
Drag a table from the list onto the diagram to add it to what is already
there. It is badged pinned and sits below the centre. Hover it and select
✕ to take it off the diagram; this does not delete it.
Zoom with ＋－ or the mouse wheel,
drag the background to pan, and select ⟳ to recentre.
Fold either side panel using its title strip to give the diagram more
room.
A table with no relationships cannot be double-clicked to redraw the diagram. If the table has
relationships but the direction you are following finds none, Follow changes
to Both for you.
Reading the detail
Select ▸ on a box to list its columns with PK and FK badges. Use
Expand all and Collapse all for the whole diagram.
In an expanded box, a foreign key column shows the table and column it points at, such as
Customer.Id.
Select a box to label its relationship lines with the columns they join, such as
CustomerId → Id, and fade unrelated lines.
Hover a line to see the constraint name and its full column mapping.
Click a line to select the table that owns the foreign key and open its Foreign
keys section, with the row marked.
Untick a colour in the key to hide that kind of object — for example, all views — along
with its lines.
New objects you have created are drawn with a dashed amber outline and badged
new until you save the project.
On a phone
A phone reads a schema. Open a saved project or connect to a database as usual, and the
diagram takes the screen.
Drag with one finger to move around, and pinch with two
to zoom.
Tap Entities down the left edge for the object list. Picking
something draws the diagram from it and closes the list again.
Tap ▸ on a box to read its columns — that is where column detail comes
from here, rather than the editor.
Tap the row above the diagram — it reads something like
2 levels · references · layered — to change the levels, the direction or the
arrangement.
Editing is not offered on a phone. Changing columns, keys and scripts is close work that
wants a keyboard and room to see what it affects, so a schema is changed on a computer. What
you save there opens here, and the other way round.