Abstract: A method and apparatus for visually displaying structural characteristics of a large database for visualizing areas where new developments may be added, or finding places where old developments may need to be re-structured or replaced. This method and apparatus shows the entire structure without showing the entire semantics, which would be too much information. Semantic information is available in other windows that can be opened after the focus of the analysis is selected. After selection, the semantic information is displayed in a focused manner also. This is accomplished by referencing the selected relation to the location of that relation in the database specification or in the relational data base management system (RDBM) application code.