Visio Data Modeling for Multiple Subject Areas

Question

All,

I am creating a data model using Visio 2010 Professional, and would like to have a tab (sheet) for each subject area: Provider, Client, Claims, Insurance, etc. Obviously there is a lot of overlap of entities among the subject areas (e.g. the Provider entity will appear in all of the ones listed above).

How can I have an entity appear on more than one sheet? I've tried copy/paste, but I end up with two distinct entities: Provider on the copied sheet and Provider1 on the pasted sheet.  I need to be able to have one entity appear on multiple sheets.  This is a very simple proposition in Erwin or ER Studio.  Is it not possible in Visio?

TIA,

texasrca

 

Answer 1

You can use a Visio UML Model Diagram for that. After you create that kind of Visio file, you can create a separate class diagram for each of the different subject areas.

To re-use your modeling elements (classes, etc) across the different diagrams, make sure the Model Explorer is visible (ribbon > UML > Show/Hide > Model Explorer) and then drag-and-drop the model elements from there to the desired diagrams. Existing associations involving those model elements will also be added to the diagram.

The model elements will remain linked to the model. Which basically means that any change to them in the model or in one of the diagrams will be reflected in all the other diagrams where they are shown. 

José Carballosa
SharePoint Solution Architect | Capgemini

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