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Displaying the RGB values of Shapes

Everyone knows that you can change the colour of Visio shapes.  Most people know that you can also change the fill pattern too.

image

The Fill dialog displays these bits of information as Color, Pattern and Pattern color.  However, the ShapeSheet stores them as FillForegnd, FillPattern and FillBkgnd.  The following screenshot is displaying the Values of the cells, which displays the RGB values:

image

The actual formula for a colour though, may reference a particular theme, or it could be a number from the color map, for example 2 usually means Red (or RGB(255,0,0)).

image

Some Visio users may wish to display the RGB values in Shape Data rows so that these values can be analysed or reported.

So, I have added some code to the bVisualUtilities.vss that I started in my last blog about automatically updating Shape Data with Area and Perimeter Lengths

First. I added some constants to the bVisualMetrics module:

Option Explicit
Const actionUpdateCell As String = "Actions.UpdateMetrics"
Const fillForegndCell As String = "Prop.FillForegnd"
Const fillBkgndCell As String = "Prop.FillBkgnd"
Const fillPatternCell As String = "Prop.FillPattern"
Then, I added the AddUpdateFillsTrigger() to add some cells to the Page and selected shapes.
Public Sub AddUpdateFillsTrigger()
Dim shp As Visio.Shape
Dim iSect As Integer
Dim iRow As Integer
Dim pag As Visio.Shape
    For Each shp In Visio.ActiveWindow.Selection
        If Not shp.ContainingMaster Is Nothing Then
            Set pag = shp.ContainingMaster.PageSheet
        ElseIf Not shp.ContainingPage Is Nothing Then
            Set pag = shp.ContainingPage.PageSheet
        End If
        iSect = Visio.VisSectionIndices.visSectionAction
        If pag.SectionExists(iSect, Visio.VisExistsFlags.visExistsAnywhere) = 0 Then
            pag.AddSection iSect
        End If
        If pag.CellExists(actionUpdateCell, Visio.visExistsAnywhere) = 0 Then
            iRow = pag.AddNamedRow(iSect, Split(actionUpdateCell, ".")(1), 0)
            pag.CellsSRC(iSect, iRow, Visio.VisCellIndices.visActionAction).FormulaU = _
                "=SETF(GetRef(Actions.UpdateMetrics.Checked)," & _
                    "NOT(Actions.UpdateMetrics.Checked))"
            pag.CellsSRC(iSect, iRow, Visio.VisCellIndices.visActionMenu).FormulaU = _
                "=""Refresh Metrics"""
        End If
        iSect = Visio.VisSectionIndices.visSectionUser
        If shp.SectionExists(iSect, Visio.VisExistsFlags.visExistsAnywhere) = 0 Then
            shp.AddSection iSect
        End If
        If shp.CellExists("User.UpdateFillsTrigger", Visio.visExistsAnywhere) = 0 Then
            iRow = shp.AddNamedRow(iSect, "UpdateFillsTrigger", 0)
            shp.Cells("User.UpdateFillsTrigger").FormulaU = _
                "=DEPENDSON(FillForegnd,FillBkgnd,FillPattern,ThePage!" & _
                actionUpdateCell & ".Checked) + " & _
                "CALLTHIS(""UpdateFills"",""bVisualUtilities"")"
        End If
        iSect = Visio.VisSectionIndices.visSectionProp
        If shp.CellExists(fillForegndCell, Visio.visExistsAnywhere) = 0 Then
            iRow = shp.AddNamedRow(iSect, Split(fillForegndCell, ".")(1), 0)
            shp.CellsSRC(iSect, iRow, Visio.VisCellIndices.visCustPropsLabel).FormulaU = _
                "=""Foreground"""
            shp.CellsSRC(iSect, iRow, Visio.VisCellIndices.visCustPropsType).FormulaU = _
                "=0"
        End If
        If shp.CellExists(fillBkgndCell, Visio.visExistsAnywhere) = 0 Then
            iRow = shp.AddNamedRow(iSect, Split(fillBkgndCell, ".")(1), 0)
            shp.CellsSRC(iSect, iRow, Visio.VisCellIndices.visCustPropsLabel).FormulaU = _
                "=""Background"""
            shp.CellsSRC(iSect, iRow, Visio.VisCellIndices.visCustPropsType).FormulaU = _
                "=0"
        End If
        If shp.CellExists(fillPatternCell, Visio.visExistsAnywhere) = 0 Then
            iRow = shp.AddNamedRow(iSect, Split(fillPatternCell, ".")(1), 0)
            shp.CellsSRC(iSect, iRow, Visio.VisCellIndices.visCustPropsLabel).FormulaU = _
                "=""Pattern"""
            shp.CellsSRC(iSect, iRow, Visio.VisCellIndices.visCustPropsType).FormulaU = _
                "=0"
        End If
        UpdateFills shp
    Next
End Sub
Finally, I added the UpdateFills() method that actually updates the Shape Data in the shapes whenever the FillForegnd, FillPattern or FillBkgnd values are changed.
Public Sub UpdateFills(ByVal shp As Visio.Shape)
Dim iSect As Integer
Dim iRow As Integer
Dim pag As Visio.Shape
    If Not shp.ContainingMaster Is Nothing Then
        Set pag = shp.ContainingMaster.PageSheet
    ElseIf Not shp.ContainingPage Is Nothing Then
        Set pag = shp.ContainingPage.PageSheet
    End If
    If pag Is Nothing Then
        Exit Sub
    End If
    iSect = Visio.VisSectionIndices.visSectionProp
    If UCase(Left(fillForegndCell, 5)) = "PROP." Or UCase(Left(fillBkgndCell, 5)) = "PROP." Or _
        UCase(Left(fillPatternCell, 5)) = "PROP." Then
         If shp.SectionExists(iSect, Visio.VisExistsFlags.visExistsAnywhere) = 0 Then
            shp.AddSection iSect
        End If
    Else
        Exit Sub
    End If
    If shp.CellExists(fillForegndCell, Visio.visExistsAnywhere) Then
        shp.Cells(fillForegndCell).FormulaU = "=""" & shp.Cells("FillForegnd").ResultStr("") & """"
    End If
    If shp.CellExists(fillBkgndCell, Visio.visExistsAnywhere) Then
        shp.Cells(fillBkgndCell).FormulaU = "=""" & shp.Cells("FillBkgnd").ResultStr("") & """"
    End If
    If shp.CellExists(fillPatternCell, Visio.visExistsAnywhere) Then
        shp.Cells(fillPatternCell).FormulaU = "=""" & Replace(shp.Cells("FillPattern").FormulaU, """", """""") & """"
    End If
End Sub
You can download the stencil that contains the VBA code here : http://bit.ly/cJYwdP
So, to use this, just Run the AddUpdateFillsTrigger macro whilst your desired shapes are selected.
image
This macro will three Shape Data rows to the selected shapes, which will display the RGB values of the Foreground and Background, plus the formula of the Pattern.
image
It is then a simple matter of using Data Graphics, as I showed in the earlier blog article, or Insert Field, as shown below, to display the Shape Data row values in the shape (don’t forget that you can enter text, field values and multiple rows in a text block):
image
Once this has been done to a ew shapes, then you easily use the built-in Visio reporting tool to list the shapes and their fills:
image
Not long now to the release of Visio 2010, but all of the code in this blog will work on any version and edition that I can think of.
About David Parker
David Parker has 25 years' experience of providing data visualization solutions to companies around the globe. He is a Microsoft MVP and Visio expert.
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Comments
  1.  YossiD says
    Thanks for these macros. I am creating a standard color pallet for block diagrams and wanted to display the RGB values in each shape without entering them manually. Your Custom Properties>Foreground field does the job nicely, except …
    For colors from the Visio standard color pallet, the Foreground field displays the color’s number rather than its RGB values, e.g. 2 vs. 255,0,0 for red. Is there any way to force the Foreground field to always display the RGB values?
    Reply
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