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What's your favorite open source database design/modeling tool?

I'm looking for one that supports several databases, especially Firebird SQL but I can't find one on Google.

  • See http://stackoverflow.com/questions/114538/visually-designing-a-database-structure. Same question. – S.Lott Sep 24 '08 at 00:19
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    I'm using MySQL Workbench for MySQL, SQL Power Architect for Postgres. Please visit question suggested above by S. Lott for info/links to these tools. – maraspin Dec 14 '10 at 09:55

6 Answers6

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I've used DBDesigner before. It is an open source tool. You might check that out. Not sure if it fits your needs.

Best of luck!

itsmatt
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    DBDesigner has morphed into MySql's workbench and it's available here - http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/workbench/5.0.html, seems pretty cool. – Rocklan Jun 05 '15 at 01:35
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Do you mean design as in 'graphic representation of tables' or just plain old 'engineering kind of design'. If it's the latter, use FlameRobin, version 0.9.0 has just been released.

If it's the former, then use DBDesigner. Yup, that uses Java.

Or maybe you meant something more like MS Access. Then Kexi should be right for you.

Milan Babuškov
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S.Lott inserted a comment, but it should be an answer: see the same question.

EDIT

Since it wasn't as obvious as I intended it to be, here follows a verbatim copy of S.Lott's answer in the other question:

I'm a big fan of ARGO UML from Tigris.org. Draws nice pictures using standard UML notation. It does some code generation, but mostly Java classes, which isn't SQL DDL, so that may not be close enough to what you want to do.

You can look at the Data Modelling Tools list and see if anything there is better than Argo UML. Many of the items on this list are free or cheap.

Also, if you're using Eclipse or NetBeans, there are many design plug-ins, some of which may have the features you're looking for.

Community
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tzot
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    You inserted an answer, but it should be a comment. :) – pugmarx May 20 '11 at 07:41
  • @pugmarx: You got a point, so after my edit I believe now it's a valid answer. – tzot May 20 '11 at 09:00
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    @Hannson: It's not plagiarism, it's a verbatim copy; it's explicitly stated in the answer. Unless you referred to something else. – tzot Nov 24 '12 at 13:23
  • My apologies! I'm terribly sorry, my reading comprehension may have been limited by a beer or five but I simply didn't notice that emphasized bit of text. Now, if you'd please make a minor edit so I could undo my -1 vote. – hannson Nov 24 '12 at 23:05
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    @Hannson: Now quoted text is block-quoted, to help comprehension. I believe that you too could do that; the answer is community wiki. – tzot Nov 26 '12 at 07:41
  • Deleted my comment on the plagiarism to avoid confusion. – hannson Nov 30 '12 at 01:28
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The DB Designer Fork project claims that it can generate FireBird sql scripts.

Gudmundur Orn
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I like Clay Eclipse plugin. I've only used it with MySQL, but it claims Firebird support.

ykaganovich
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You may want to look at IBExpert Personal Edition. While not open source, this is a very good tool for designing, building, and administering Firebird and InterBase databases.

The Personal Edition is free, but some of the more advanced features are not available. Still, even without the slick extras, the free version is very powerful.

Jeff Jones
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