The Visio 2007 Beta

Since I started using visio in 1999 or so, I loved it. Microsoft bought Visio for $1.5 billion, which was the most Microsoft had paid anyone for anything. Since then, Microsoft has incorporated it into its Office line.

I usually don't use a lot of Beta, but I had no choice. Visio 2003 does not connect to MS SQL Server 2005, even with SQL Native Client installed on my laptop. I had two choices: download and install my (student free) copy of Visio for Enterprise Architects on my soon-to-be-dead laptop, or download a free Visio 2007 Beta.

I use Visio for diagramming almost anything technical, from rack diagrams to network and Active Directory diagrams to schoolwork like data flow diagrams, class diagrams, statecharts, and entity relationship diagrams. (I can't afford ERWin.) You can even export from MS Project into MS Visio to create GANNT and PERT charts that are more customizable than what you can do in Project. (Although for updating diagrams on large projects quickly, nothing beats Critical Tools which does a much better job of creating Work Breakdown Structures and PERT charts than MS Project.

One of my favorite features in Visio is reverse-engineering databases. I find it much easier to create databases in Access and then reverse-engineer the diagram in Visio. I can also test out the Access database and see if I can get the reports I need with the right queries. (I hear that even Oracle DBAs with years of experience test things in Access.) I can also use this feature to investigate vendor-supplied databases. (One-size-fits-none databases tend to have hundreds of tables.)

In Visio, I just create a new database diagram, then select Database | Reverse Engineer and point it at my data source, which is still a little cumbersome to set up on a new non-Access database. After importing the tables, indexes and queries I need, I can select Database | Options | Document and hit the checkboxes for cardinality, crow's feet, and actions for relationships. This box has changed slightly for Visio 2007, and it looks like the IDEF1X symbol set is also new, and it will be especially helpful to defense contractors.

Another good thing about Visio 2007 is that I can use all my old stencils, including the giant pack of slightly dated Altima stencils that came with a 3com switch. Since I can't afford to buy lots of custom stencils, I am very happy to see that more vendors are offering free equipment representations for their products at places like the Visio Cafe.

If you're looking for a free version of Visio to work with, the Visio 2007 Beta will work. Mine hasn't even crashed yet.