bVisual

bVisual Blog by David Parker

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Grid Snapping Revisited

I have previously tackled the subject of snapping to grids in Visio desktop (see https://bvisual.net/2018/06/19/really-snapping-to-grids-in-visio/ ) but a recent project required me to improve the example because it did not respond to all cursor arrow keys. The problem was that the previous solution could not understand which arrow key had been clicked, therefore it did not know if to reposition to the previous or next grid. The new ShapeSheet code solution can now respond to the correct arrow key … and all without any add-in. In addition, I also show how a Control point can be made to snap to a grid spacing, and how AutoConnect can be set to add the next shape at the right offset in both the horizontal and vertical directions.

Lastly, Microsoft released the web edition of Visio since the last article, and I demonstrate the difference behaviour of grid snapping between that and the desktop edition.

  • Set the Horizontal and Vertical Grid Spacing
  • Turn OFF Snap to Ruler subdivisions and Grid ON
  • Edit Space between Shapes for AutoConnect
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Optimize Visio Flowcharts: Swimlane Reordering Tips

Microsoft Visio desktop Plan 2 and Professional editions provides the ability to create and synchronize cross-functional flowcharts between the diagram and an Excel table. This is great, and widely used for many types of processes. The Excel table normally has a Function / Swimlane column that contains text that becomes labels on the swimlane containers, and a Phase / Timeline column that contains text that becomes the label of the phase or separator containers. The import provides the option to order the diagram by Function and/or Phase, but it is impossible to get them ordered by both! This article provides a solution using a free macro-enabled Visio stencil.

  • Excel table with Function and Phase columns
  • Visio Data \ Create from Data
  • Step 2 More Options to order by Phase
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The importance of #layers in Visio for Power BI

Judging by the number of downloads of my free Visio and Power BI GuIde, there is an increasing recognition of this great feature. I recently started to prepare an example for someone, but found that their sample Visio document has just over the 1,000 shape limit, so what can you do about that? The answer is to modify the master shapes so only the top level of the group has a # symbol at the start. This ensures that only the shapes on these layers are counted. In this particular example the count of shapes was reduced from 1,084 to 278 … well within the limit!

So, how is this done? Well, this can be done manually by editing each master shape. In this following example the shape count is reduced from 6 to 1 using this method, and there are 45 instances of this master shape on the page. so that makes 45*5=225 less shapes just by editing this one master.

  • Master structure before any changes to the layers
  • Master structure with # layer for the top level group
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How to migrate from Lucidchart to Visio

I am pleased to announce that I will be presenting a webinar on Thursday 10th October 2024 where I will be demonstrating how to convert many types of diagrams from Lucidchart to Visio, and keep their smartness. Over the 30 years that I have been using and developing solutions with Visio, I have seen many imitators come and go. Lucidchart, however, has carved out a niche over the years because it is available on Macs, whereas Visio only relatively recently became available in the web browser. Now that Microsoft provide a version of Visio as part of Microsoft 365, and more capable web versions for a subscription that is less than the equivalent Lucidchart cost. Moreover, Microsoft Visio Plan 2 has the ever popular Windows desktop edition that has many more features and can be used as a design studio for diagrams to be used in the web editions.

The following examples are conversions from Lucidchart to Visio Plan 1.

  • Org Chart
  • Configuration Management
  • Cluster Chart
  • AWS Web Application
  • Flow Chart
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Setting Default Measurement Units in Visio Pages

Microsoft Visio can handle many different units of measurements which can be set for a page and separately for shapes, such as dimensions, within the page. This can confuse some users who expect them both to be the same all the time. In fact, the dimension units can be set to be the same as the page units, but not necessarily so. It is possible to have different units on different dimension shapes, but is also possible to set all the same with one click, and to synchronise them with the page units.

  • Page Units
  • Dimension Units
  • Page Scale
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Refreshing the cached installed files of Visio

I have created many Visio solutions over the past 25 years and used a number of methods of creating an installation that includes Visio templates and stencils. I have just wasted many hours trying to debug an installation created with Advanced Installer until I realised that the problem was that Visio was not properly updating the cache of installed templates and stencils. In the end, the answer was to delete the cache and let Visio re-create it. The screenshots below show the custom shapes opened with the custom template and the More Shapes context menu. Before I deleted the cache, Visio incorrectly displayed the file name of some of the stencils (those with a trailing “_M” ) rather than the display name as entered into the PublishComponent table in Advanced Installer. In addition, the context menu did not show those stencils as being present in the workspace.

  • Before deleting the cache
  • After deleting the cache
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