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ERD Symbols and Meanings

Crow's foot notation is used in Barker's Notation, Structured Systems Analysis and Design Method (SSADM) and information engineering. Crow's foot diagrams represent entities as boxes, and relationships as lines between the boxes. Different shapes at the ends of these lines represent the cardinality of the relationship.
The Chen's ERD notation is still used and is considered to present a more detailed way of representing entities and relationships.
To create an ERD, software engineers mainly turn to dedicated drawing software, which contain the full notation resources for their specific database design - ERD symbols and meanings. CS Odessa has released an all-inclusive Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) solution for their powerful drawing program, ConceptDraw DIAGRAM.
How to Build an Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD)
How to Build an Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD)

Entity Relationship Diagram Symbols

Creating an entity-relationship (ER) model is to visually represent the structure of a business database, where data equates to entities (or objects) that are linked by defined relationships expressing dependencies and requirements. By nature it is an abstract visualization, the first step in the design process towards creating a logical and functional database.
ERD symbols used for professional ERD drawing are collected in libraries from the Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) solution for ConceptDraw DIAGRAM.

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 Software Engineering

Entity Relationship Diagram (aka ERD, ER Diagram, E-R Diagram) is a well-tried software engineering tool for data modeling, system design and illustrating the logical structure of databases.
Professional ERD drawing is an essential software engineering method for database modeling. ConceptDraw DIAGRAM as a powerful Entity Relationship Diagram Software Engineering offers the tools of Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) solution from Software Development area of ConceptDraw Solution Park.

E-R Diagrams

Complexity of databases increases day by day, due to this the Entity relationship models and E-R diagrams become more and more popular, and now are an important part of database design. E-R diagrams created at ConceptDraw DIAGRAM allow visually and graphically represent structure and design of databases.

Notation & Symbols for ERD

The ER diagram is constructed from the specific ERD graphic elements. There are used 2 types of ERD notations: Chen and Crow's Foot.
A complete set of work flow shapes, notation & symbols for ERD, entity relationship stencils, included in Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) solution for ConceptDraw DIAGRAM software, makes drawing diagrams based on ERD notation as smooth as possible.

How to Draw ER Diagrams

How to Draw ER Diagrams? With Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) solution from the Software Development Area for ConceptDraw Solution Park you are able to draw ER diagram with no problem. It includes 45 predesigned icons advocated by popular Chen's and Crow’s Foot notations that can be used when describing an enterprise database.

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.

What is Entity-Relationship Diagram

Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) is an acknowledged method to visualize the logical structure of databases. Using special symbols described in ERD notations you can depict a database of any complexity.
The vector graphic ER diagrams produced when using ConceptDraw ERD solution can be used in whitepapers, presentations, datasheets, posters, or any technical materials.

ER Diagram Tool

Creating of Entity-Relationship Diagrams (ERDs) is a complex process that requires convenient, automated tools. ConceptDraw DIAGRAM diagramming and vector drawing software offers a powerful ER Diagram Tool - the Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) Solution from the Software Development Area.

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

The Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) solution from ConceptDraw Solution Park extends ConceptDraw DIAGRAM vector 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.

ER Diagram Programs for Mac

ConceptDraw DIAGRAM compatible Mac OS X software extended with powerful Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) Solution from the Software Development Area for ConceptDraw Solution Park is one of the famous ER Diagram Programs for Mac. It gives the perfect ability to draw ER diagrams for visually describing databases with Chen's and Crow's Foot notation icons.

Components of ER Diagram

ConceptDraw gives the ability to draw ER diagram (ERD) for visual describing database using the entity relationship symbols, work flow shapes, entity relationship stencils. Entity-Relationship model making possibility to describe a database using the components of ER Diagram in which in the tables data can be the point to data in other tables - for instance, your entry in the database could point to several entries.

Drawing ER diagrams on a Mac

Drawing ER diagrams on a Mac is smooth and easy when you have a software tool well-suited for professional ERD drawing. ConceptDraw DIAGRAM software for Mac extended with the Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) solution is the best tool for drawing ER diagrams on a Mac.

Entity Relationship Diagram Software

The world-best Entity Relationship Diagram software suitable for professional ERD drawing is ConceptDraw DIAGRAM software extended with the Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) solution. This solution contains all libraries, templates and samples you may need for professional ERD drawing.

Design Element: Chen for Entity Relationship Diagram - ERD

Entity-relationship diagrams (ERDs) are intended for the development of data models and provide a standard method for determining data and relationships between them. The first notation for ERD was introduced by Chen. Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) solution from Software Development area of ConceptDraw Solution Park provides the libraries with predesigned set of ERD diagram design element Chen corresponding entities and relationships.

Design Element: Crows Foot for Entity Relationship Diagram - ERD

Creating an ERD requires choosing a specific set of notations that best serve the specific database being designed. ConceptDraw DIAGRAM software extended with Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) solution from Software Development area of ConceptDraw Solution Park allows you to draw ER diagrams for depicting a database using the ERD diagram design element Crow's Foot - Crow′s Foot notation icons.

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

Crow's Foot notation was proposed by Gordon Everest. According to this notation, the entity is represented by rectangle, relation is depicted by line which ties two entities involved in a relationship. Entity-relationship diagrams based on both Chen's and Crow's Foot notations, can be easily drawn using the ConceptDraw DIAGRAM ERD diagrams software tools for design element Crow's Foot and Chen from Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) solution.
How to Build an Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD)
How to Build an Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD)

Process Flow Diagram Symbols

Chemical and Process Engineering solution contains variety predesigned process flow diagram elements relating to instrumentation, containers, piping and distribution necessary for chemical engineering, and can be used to map out chemical processes or easy creating various Chemical and Process Flow Diagrams in ConceptDraw DIAGRAM.

Developing Entity Relationship Diagrams

When you need to visually represent the structure of relational database, Entity relationship diagram (ERD) is a type of diagram for that case.
Most entity-relationship diagrams can be built with objects from Flowchart solution or ERD Solution which contains inbuilt templates. Follow these steps to create your own custom ERD diagram.
Don't be frightened if it looks complex, ConceptDraw DIAGRAM makes it easy to create an ERD, and hundreds of other diagrams, in minutes.