DBDesigner 4 is a great free tool for database design, modeling, and visualization. Following are simple steps to install it on Ubuntu.

$ mkdir ~/src/dbdesigner
$ cd !!:1 # or $ cd ~/src/dbdesigner

Download the latest version of DBDesigner RPM (DBDesigner4-0.x.x.x.i586.rpm) from http://fabforce.net/downloads.php

wget ftp://195.220.108.108/linux/sourceforge/s/project/sk/skychart/OldFiles/l...

You cannot install RPM on Ubuntu since it uses debian package manager. You need to convert rpm packages to deb packages using alien first. If you do not have alien, install it as follows:

$ sudo alien *.rpm

Install the packages

$ sudo dpkg -i *.deb

Link to library

$ cd /usr/lib
$ sudo ln -s DBDesigner4/libsqlmy.so

Link to binary with an alias "dbd4" or any other name you like

$ cd /usr/lib
$ sudo ln -s /opt/DBDesigner4/DBDesigner4 dbd4
$ exit

The default settings should work fine but you can edit user settings if you wish to do so

cd ~/.DBDesigner4
vi DBConn_DefaultSettings.ini

Run DBDesigner4

$ dbd4