# Rails model design visualization **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [April 1, 2010, 9:04pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-model-design-visualization/186186 "2010-04-01T21:04:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dudebot](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/e495f1/32.png) [@Dudebot](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Dudebot)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2010, 9:04pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-model-design-visualization/186186/1 "2010-04-01T21:04:47Z")
I’m a fairly visual person, and I have a piece of paper with many boxes and arrows with labels like “has many” and “belongs to” for my database models. It’s messy, but it works. What I keep looking for–weeks, actually, I’m certain it’s out there, but I haven’t hit on the right set of Google query terms :)–is something that will take a Rails set of models and show its design. Does anyone know of such a thing? And if not, what are people using to visually lay out their model designs? I’ve tried MySQL workbench, but it really isn’t designed to make pretty pictures as far as I can tell 😉 TIA, Craig ---
**Author:** ![Dudebot](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/e495f1/32.png) [@Dudebot](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Dudebot)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2010, 9:14pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-model-design-visualization/186186/2 "2010-04-01T21:14:09Z")
On 1 April 2010 20:03, Dudebot [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > What I keep looking for–weeks, actually, I’m certain it’s out there, > but I haven’t hit on the right set of Google query terms :)–is > something that will take a Rails set of models and show its design. Railroad does this (after a fashion) [http://railroad.rubyforge.org/](http://railroad.rubyforge.org/) It’s not perfect, but it’s good enough for me 90% of the time. ---
**Author:** ![Dudebot](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/e495f1/32.png) [@Dudebot](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Dudebot)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2010, 9:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-model-design-visualization/186186/3 "2010-04-01T21:34:39Z")
On Apr 1, 2:12 pm, Michael P. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Railroad does this (after a fashion)[http://railroad.rubyforge.org/](http://railroad.rubyforge.org/) So that rocks. When did the world get so ultra cool? _Many, many_ thanks. Craig ---
**Author:** ![Dudebot](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/e495f1/32.png) [@Dudebot](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Dudebot)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2010, 10:52pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-model-design-visualization/186186/4 "2010-04-02T22:52:21Z")
“Dudebot” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote in message news:removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid… > I’m a fairly visual person, and I have a piece of paper with many > boxes and arrows with labels like “has many” and “belongs to” for my > database models. It’s messy, but it works. > > What I keep looking for–weeks, actually, I’m certain it’s out there, > but I haven’t hit on the right set of Google query terms :)–is > something that will take a Rails set of models and show its design. > > Does anyone know of such a thing? And if not, what are people using > to visually lay out their model designs? In addition to railroads, The rubymine IDE has a visualization system. Uses the (proreitary) yFiles Graph visualization library, so the images look a little fancier, but the basic graphs are not too disimilar. One nice feature is that it is live unlike railroads, alowing you to move around the models if you did not like the default layout. It also lets you show/hide the special properties of a model like ‘Created\_at’, as well as show or hide the user defined models. Probably not worth considering unless you already use the Rubymine IDE, but I thought it should be thrown out there. Now for an aside: I know IDE’s are not particularly popular in the Rails community, and for good reason. Most IDEs are fairly bloated, and often make some tasks harder. Depite being a java-based IDE it is not as bloated as say an Eclipse-based IDE. The IDE though is suprising good at offering good options for autocomplete, although not perfect, but with a dynamically typed language perfect is just not possible. Unfortunately, in a few places the Rubymine IDE does make some tasks harder. An example is not being able to just type “rake db:migrate” but having to use a keystoke combination to open a dialog box to choose which version to migrate the database to. Perhaps a furtue version will offer a command prompt for those who like the code completion, refactoring helpers, and some of the other little nice touches an IDE can offer[1], but want to keep the existing command line workflows. I know the latest private beta of RadRails is offering this. ---
**Author:** ![Dudebot](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/e495f1/32.png) [@Dudebot](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Dudebot)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2010, 11:14pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-model-design-visualization/186186/5 "2010-04-02T23:14:02Z")
> > Railroad does this (after a fashion) [http://railroad.rubyforge.org/](http://railroad.rubyforge.org/) > > So that rocks. When did the world get so ultra cool? _Many, many_ > thanks. plus one from me! Thank you very much! ---
**Author:** ![Dudebot](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/e495f1/32.png) [@Dudebot](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Dudebot)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2010, 12:52am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-model-design-visualization/186186/6 "2010-04-03T00:52:21Z")
On Apr 2, 3:49 pm, “Joe S.” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > In addition to railroads, The rubymine IDE has a visualization system. Uses > the (proreitary) yFiles Graph visualization library, so the images look a > little fancier, but the basic graphs are not too disimilar. Thanks, Joe! I’ll have to check it out… Looks like us poor academics are given a break on the price 🙂 Craig ---
**Author:** ![Dudebot](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/e495f1/32.png) [@Dudebot](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Dudebot)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2010, 11:14pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-model-design-visualization/186186/7 "2010-04-02T23:14:37Z")
> > Railroad does this (after a fashion) [http://railroad.rubyforge.org/](http://railroad.rubyforge.org/) > > So that rocks. When did the world get so ultra cool? _Many, many_ > thanks. plus one from me! Thank you very much!