Reverse Engineering for Database Diagramming in Visio with SQL Server 2008

Question

I need to reverse engineer a Microsoft SQL Server 2008 in order to create a Microsoft Visio 2007 Database Model Diagram. So I choose "Reverse Engineer" from the Database menu to connect to the DB.

I configured the Microsoft SQL Server Visio driver so that is uses SQL Server Native Client 10.0 as the ODBC driver. Afterwards I created a User DSN which connects to my DB. This DSN works (at least the provided test is successful). After clicking next in the Reverse Engineer Wizard, Visio kindly asks for my credentials which I properly provide, but after clicking OK I receive the following message:

The currently selected Visio driver is not compatible with the data source.

I tried using the old SQL Server ODBC driver, by also reconfiguring the Visio driver of course. It does not work too.

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/92811/reverse-engineering-for-database-diagramming-in-visio-with-sql-server-2008

Answer 1

To connect Visio 2007 to a SQL Server 2008 database run the Reverse Engineer Wizard (Database/Reverse Engineer. . . ) in Visio 2007 select the ODBC Generic driver from the "Installed Visio drivers" drop-down. Then create a new data source using the SQL Native Client (2005.90.4035, 2005 SP3). You'll get a warning stating that some information retrieved may be incomplete. Click OK and continue. It's not the most intuitive solution (but not difficult), but at least this will allow you to use Visio 2007 to connect to SQL 2008.

Chip Lambert, Slalom Consulting