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Notes & Zones

Beyond entities, you can enrich your ERD canvas with Note Nodes and Zone Nodes.

Canvas with Notes and Zones ERD with domain boundaries defined by zones and design notes added as memos

Note Node

Add memos to the canvas to record design intent, business rules, TODOs, and more.

Creation

  • Click the Add Note icon in the top toolbar
  • Or right-click on the canvas → Add Note

Rich-Text Editing

Double-click a note to activate the rich-text editor. Various formatting options are supported:

Format Shortcut Use Case
Bold Ctrl+B Highlight key terms
Italic Ctrl+I Notes and references
List Ctrl+Shift+8 Rules, conditions
Numbered list Ctrl+Shift+7 Sequential steps
Code block Ctrl+Shift+C SQL, code snippets

Style Customization

  • Background color — Change to yellow, blue, green, etc.
  • Resize — Drag corners to resize
  • Free placement — Move anywhere on the canvas

Note Usage Examples

Purpose Example Content
Design Intent "Customer No is auto-generated. Numbering rule: YYYYMMDD + 4-digit sequence"
Business Rules "Orders exceeding $10,000 require manager approval"
TODO "Payment Method entity to be added in Release 2"
Interface Mapping "This entity maps to TB_CUSTOMER in the external ERP system"
History "2024-03-15 Kim DA: Changed Order Status ENUM values"

Zone Node

A visual grouping area for related entities. Represents domain, subject area, or module boundaries.

Creation

  • Click the Add Zone icon in the top toolbar

Configuration

  • Label — Display the area name at the top of the zone (e.g., Order Domain, Member Management)
  • Background color — Semi-transparent colors to visually separate from entities
  • Resize — Drag corners to resize the area

Zone Color Guide

Using consistent zone colors in large-scale ERDs helps quickly identify domains:

Domain Recommended Color Reasoning
Core Business (Orders, Payments) 🔵 Blue Attention-grabbing
Users/Members 🟢 Green People/life association
Codes/Reference Data 🟡 Yellow Reference-type data
History/Logs ⚫ Gray Secondary data
External Integration 🟠 Orange Warning/boundary

Zone Usage Scenarios

Domain Separation

Using zones in large-scale ERDs creates visual domain boundaries that greatly improve readability.

┌─────────── Order Domain ──────────┐
│  [Order]  [Order Item]  [Shipping]│
└───────────────────────────────────┘
┌─────────── Member Domain ─────────┐
│  [Customer]  [Address]  [Contact] │
└───────────────────────────────────┘

Manageable without zones. Use notes to mark sections if needed.

2–4 zones for core domain separation work well.

5+ zones for detailed separation. Establish a team-wide zone color standard for consistency.

Note vs Zone — When to Use Which?

Purpose Note Zone
Record design intent ✅ —
Record business rules ✅ —
Group entities — ✅
Mark domain boundaries — ✅
Interface mapping info ✅ —
Visual separation △ (limited colors) ✅ (transparent background)