SQL Server Management Studio diagramming and dates

Copper Contributor

I have a couple of issues with SSMS 18.9.1 that are driving me mad, one small, the other, not so much, and wondered if anyone else experiences them:

 

Firstly, I'll hold my hand up and admit, that using the table designer in SSMS is a fantastic way of building my base table structure, without having to resort to code, and 99 times out of 100, gets the job done perfectly.  The one issue I have with it, however, is the DATETIME2 field type.  Whenever I set this value to something like DATETIME2(0), it resets it and changes it back to DATETIME2(7)!  Does anyone else have this issue?  It's not a major thing, obviously, more of an annoyance than anything else.  Is there any kind of fix for this, or something I'm doing wrong?  Can the default template be changed?

 

The other thing that causes me more of a serious problem is a stability issue with database diagrams.  I rely on this tool quite heavily, to produce relevant relational maps of the table structure for our documentation, and as a model for applications; it is a great tool!  One of the last strokes of perfection for it, would be to automatically line up the links between tables with their associated columns, as with Microsoft Access, for instance.  And this is where my pain usually starts.

 

On several occasions, as I have been developing diagrams, I have added the tables, then joined the columns together (FK -> PK) and manually lined up the links to appear beside their respective field names.  Sometimes it's not instantly obvious, so I pause while I'm comparing the source and destination on the link.  If I pause too long, SSMS spirals off on its own travels and never returns, simply spinning the cursor.  Windows reports the application as being busy, but any changes are lost at that point, as the program never comes back.

 

Are there fixes for them, out there, or is it just one of those things?

2 Replies
I am able to duplicate the datetime2 behavior in SSMS 18.10. I have not encountered the database diagram problem.
Thanks for taking a look, @MCarr10. Hmmm ... I wonder if it's down to GPU drivers. I'll have to take a look.