What is the point in using a "real" database modeling tool?

Posted by cdeszaq on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by cdeszaq
Published on 2010-04-15T15:47:09Z Indexed on 2010/04/17 0:43 UTC
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database-design

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tools

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data-modeling

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database

We currently have a 10 year old nasty, spaghetti-code-style SQL Server database that we are soon looking to pretty much re-write from scratch as part of a re-write to a large web application. (The existing application will serve as the functional requirements for the next incarnation of the app).

Some have suggested we use Visio to do all the diagramming and to generate the DDL, but others have suggested we use a dedicated database design tool, rather than a diagramming tool that is able to export DDL.

Is there any benefit to using "real" DB design tools, such as ModelRight, over general tools like Visio? If so, what are those specific benefits?

Edit: In a nutshell, what can real/dedicated tools do that something like Visio can't, and how much do these capabilities matter (from a best-practices standpoint, for example)

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