VS Studio 2010 Table Designer

Embarrassingly enough this one eluded me for quite some time. I was surprised to stumble onto the fact that there is indeed table designer functionality within Visual Studio. It is very much comparable to the SQL Server Management Studio table designer.

However, as far as I can tell, it is dependent on a database server connection which goes against one of Microsoft's biggest database project selling points - disconnected development.

If you're like me and haven't been able to find this functionality I included a screen shot below to help you find it. The key is the Server Explorer tab.

1. Create a connection if you don't already have one.
2. Expand your connection and right-click on Tables -> Add New Table.

Once you have defined your table you can use the Table Designer - > Generate Change Script . . . menu option to create a DDL script. If you save the definition it will actually save it to the database.