Data model (97 sr2 NTsp6)

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Hope someone can help please.
From a database I want to produce a data map graphically. Typically my tables fields are OriginatingBuildingNumber, pathcode and DestinationBuilding.
From an OriginatingBuilding there can be MANY or ONE path and to a DestinationBuilding there can be MANY or ONE path.
The map I require should show a building only one time and have the Paths as a connecting line. The map should be followed from left to right of the page.
I have already been able to depict the connecting paths by straightforward use of a report and changing the results field to have a border, but this gives me one result for each path and hence, buildings can be repeated many times.
From a search on the web I see that what I may be looking for is a “CASE” Tool (??) although obviously I would like to be able to use one of our already many applications such as Visio.
If I do need to look more at a CASE tool, does anyone have experience or advice to offer on “what” and “what not” to look for.
TIA
alan
Cheshire
UK

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I don’t have personal experience with it, but I have been told that Visio will do pretty much what you are after. I believe it is also possible to use Automation from Access and actually drive the generation process from Access using the data structure you have developed. You might consider posting a message that references this message in the Visio forum and see if someone there has done that sort of thing. I’ll also check with my partner, as I believe he may have done some Access/Visio work.

It also occurs to me that what you are describing would look much like the relationship diagram that Access produces for tables. I suppose you could do something creative with that, where each building would be represented by a table. Talk about using a screwdriver to pound nails!

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I talked with my partner, and it appears Visio would be a decent choice, though apparently there isn’t a great deal of functionallity in the automation area until you get to 2002. But you can read in a data structure from a database and have it create charts. He had used that to create an org chart based on data from a Human Resources database. Is this a one-time project, or something that you need to update frequently? Also is the number of buildings constant? Access has the ability to do what are called self-joins, so you can create all sorts of links between a table and itself, and that might be a useful property for what you are trying to do. Let us know how you get on – it’s an interesting project.

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FWIW, you can refresh a database link in a Visio document, so that if the data is changed in Access, your diagram can be kept up to date. I haven’t done it in the recent versions of Visio, but I used to do it in Access 97/Visio 5. The new versions of Visio are vastly more powerful and smarter than Visio 5 but are also harder to learn and use. I wouldn’t expect it to change the diagrams themselves, but the data that drives them can be updated.

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Thanks for contributions, I believe we may now be on the road to a solution. Thinking at a tangent and substitute Flowchart for Database. By using various queries and ‘make table’ queries I can now get an output in excel format which I can use the visio flowchart wizard on. This is probably the best method for completing my ‘connectivity’ diagram.
By modifying the Excel hidden sheets I can even spec which visio template to use.
Many thanks to all posts.

Alan
Cheshire
UK

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