Is there a tool that will show diagrams of my SQL database in real-time?

Question

I've created some diagrams of SQL tables using the "Reverse Engineer" feature of Microsoft Office Visio. I like being able to visualize my relational databases in this manner.

However, what I get is just a static document that I can print, e-mail to colleagues, and click widgets on.

Earlier this year, I saw at a demo that the new version of Visual Studio 2010 has a new feature called the "Architect Explorer", which allows developers to view relationships among .net classes on the fly. It has many features for filtering the data that the developer is interested in.

It would be really awesome if I could visually browse my tables and stored procedures and see what is related to what by primary key, foreign key, and referenced in stored procedures. I realize that I'm talking about two entirely different technologies and it's not a perfect analogy, but is there some similar tool that would allow me to visualize tables in my SQL database?

Answer 1

I have seen RedGate SQL Dependency Tracker do this:

SQL Dependency Tracker allows you to dynamically explore all your database object dependencies, using a range of graphical layouts.

Answer 2

If you're already using Visio, you should be able to refresh your database diagrams after they've been reverse engineered from an existing database.

Check out:

About synchronizing database model diagrams with databases

If you have a database model that you created from an existing database with the Reverse Engineer W izard, you can keep the drawing synch ronized with the database.

Is that what you're looking for??

Answer 3

DeZign for Databases can do that. It compares your data model to a database and updates your model without loosing the layout. More here.