Visualize Dataverse entity metadata as live UML class diagrams

LiveUML is an XrmToolBox plugin that lets you explore Dataverse entity metadata and generate UML class diagrams in real time. Select the entities you care about, pick which attributes and relationships to show, and get a clear visual representation of your data model.

• Load entity metadata from any connected Dataverse environment
• Select entities, attributes, and relationships to include in the diagram
• Real-time UML rendering — diagram updates live as you change selections
• Smart auto-layout — BFS-based grid positioning places related entities near each other
• Drag-and-drop — manually reposition entity boxes on the canvas
• Resizable boxes — drag the bottom-right handle to resize entity boxes
• Zoom in/out — Ctrl+MouseWheel to zoom from 25% to 300%
• Scrollable canvas — horizontal and vertical scrollbars for navigating large diagrams
• Search and filter — quickly find entities by logical or display name
• Export as PNG — save the current diagram to an image file
• Fully async — all Dataverse calls run in the background, no UI freezing

1. Open XrmToolBox
2. Go to Tool Library
3. Search for LiveUML
4. Click Install

1. Download LiveUML.dll from GitHub Releases
2. Copy it to your XrmToolBox Plugins folder:

   %APPDATA%\MscrmTools\XrmToolBox\Plugins\
   

3. Restart XrmToolBox

1. Open XrmToolBox and connect to a Dataverse environment
2. Launch LiveUML from the tool list
3. Click Load Metadata to retrieve all entities
4. Check the entities you want to visualize
5. Use the detail panel to select specific attributes and relationships
6. Drag entity boxes to adjust the layout
7. Click Export PNG to save the diagram

LiveUML/
├── Models/        # POCOs decoupled from SDK types
├── Services/      # Dataverse metadata queries (IMetadataService)
├── Rendering/     # GDI+ renderer + grid layout engine
└── Extensions/    # SDK-to-model mapping

• Models define entities, attributes, relationships, and diagram layout as plain C# objects
• Services handle all communication with the Dataverse SDK
• Rendering takes care of GDI+ drawing and automatic entity positioning
• Extensions map SDK metadata types to the internal model

• .NET Framework 4.8
• WinForms (XrmToolBox PluginControlBase)
• GDI+ (System.Drawing)
• XrmToolBoxPackage SDK

Prerequisites: .NET SDK 8.0+

git clone https://github.com/Tony0380/LiveUML.git
cd LiveUML
dotnet build LiveUML.sln -c Release

The output DLL will be at LiveUML/bin/Release/net48/LiveUML.dll.

Antonio Colamartino — GitHub