How can I import the contents of an Oracle database into Visio to create an Entity Relationship Diagram?

I have an Oracle database, and I would like to create an ERD in Visio 2007 Pro.

I have so far looked at DBMS_METADATA.GET_DDL commands to generate DDL. I know that I can import an Access DB into Visio, but it seems that Access understands an SQL dialect which is different from Oracle, so I would need to tweak every Create Table command to change the data types.

Is there a simple way to create an ERD using DDL in Visio Pro 2007?

All you need is configured ODBC connection to Oracle DB

1. Install Oracle Client SW (download from otn.oracle.com). I recommend installing same version as your Oracle DB

1. Define connection in tnsnames.ora

1. Create and test ODBC connection to Oracle DB in Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Data Sources (ODBC) - use Oracle's driver in your ORA_HOME, use connection defined in tnsnames.ora

1. Importing from defined ODBC connection to Oracle should be same as importing from Access DB

StackExchange Database Administrators Q#14242, answer score: 7