MySQL Workbench - Rearranging Schema Diagram - Autolayout not working

Question

I am using MySQl Work-bench 2 to construct a schema diagram., by reverse engineering the database. However, when I included 450 tables., the tables are getting overlapped with one another and its practically impossible for me., to rearrange because there is no space.

The arrange option in Mysql work-bench is also not so helping. Is there any tool available in internet., which could also rearrange. Or I only have to do the divide and conquer method. i.e partially selecting part of the tables and constructing the diagram part by part.

Solution 1

I am using Mysql Workbench 6.1. By default the diagram will look crunched for large number of tables, making it difficult to figure out relationship between tables. Many tables will overlay on other tables. This is because, the default layout size is small.

In the menu, Go to Model >> "Diagram properties and size".

Change width and size to some thing big (for example width 23 and height 5) -

Then in the menu, Go to Arrange >> Autolayout.

Now we should see a clean diagram with all the relations. Now we can re-adjust width and height, more meaningfully

For MySQL workbench 8.0, we need to select Arrange > Align to Grid and Arrange > Center diagram contents and THEN Arrange > Autolayout - thanks to @mowwwalker for this info

Solution 2

It is usually counter productive to stare at 450 tables all at the same time. In many schemas, tables are related by function. For example, for a schema representing a store, there may be customers, orders, products and so on. A product itself may consist of a number of related tables. You can use a tool such as SchemaCrawler to comprehend such a schema. SchemaCrawler allows you to search for column and table names using regular expressions. Then you can add in related tables. Finally, you can graph the selected tables. All of this can be done with a single command-line. If your schema changes, simply save the command-line, and rerun. SchemaCrawler is free and open source.

Comments

[8bitjunkie]

This does not work for me using v6.3. The diagram does not reformat at all.

[mowwwalker]

This worked for me in MySQL workbench 8.0, but only after selecting Arrange > Align to Grid and Arrange > Center diagram contents and THEN Arrange > Autolayout

[Sairam Krish]

thank you @mowwwalker. Haven't tried it with MySQL workbench 8. Will update my answer, to make it useful for others.