I can't create a database diagram in VS2010 for SQL Server Express

Question

For some reason, when I click Add Diagram in Server Explorer I am left with an empty tab for designing diagrams. However, there is no dialog box which usually asks what tables to add. The dropdown menu at the top called Diagrams also has all the buttons inactive.

What could be the reason?

I have my SQL Server Express running (checked in SQL Server Configuration Manager). Version - 10.1.

Answer 1

I switched to Visual Studio 2012 and I can build diagrams there. VS2010 on the same machine still has problems. VS2010 on my other computer - no problems. Still don't know what could be the issue.

Answer 2

After running into this problem in Visual Studio 2010, I switched to using SQL Server Management, but got the same problem. After doing some searching, I found two articles that were able to fix this for me. The discussion here: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/d65c71f5-3887-4f2a-bbd3-e799a4ac6fdc/visual-studio-database-tools-error?forum=vstsdb

has information that installing a newer beta version installs the visual database tools for 2012, but when uninstalling does not set it back to the older version. There were two locations for files that had to be replaced. The directory and file name of the DLL (on an X64 machine) is: C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\microsoft shared\Visual Database Tools\dsref80.dll There is a link to the dll in the posting.

There was also a second folder some people had to replace, which was also referenced at this link: http://harshgupta71.blogspot.in/2013/02/the-specified-module-could-not-be-found.html The directory and file name of the DLL (on an X64 machine) is: C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\microsoft shared\MSDesigners8 There was a download to the replacement files as well.

The other option instead of downloading these files is to rename the files/folders and then do a repair/reinstallation.