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Shape Design

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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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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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Linking Data to Shapes in Visio after using Data Visualizer

Data Visualizer (DV) in Visio Plan 2 (Data | Create from Data | Create ) is great because it provides a way of automatically creating a diagram from data, but it also prevents some of the other data-linking features in Visio from being used. This is because DV wants to take control of the data in the shapes to provide refreshes from the data source or send updates to the data source. This can be very annoying if you use DV to create the initial layout, then you enhance this, so it looks just perfect, and then you just want to update some of the data without affecting the layout. DV may re-layout your carefully crafted diagram, even if there are no updates to the data that should do that. Also, you may want to integrate data from other sources that were not available or accessible to the table or query used for by Data Visualizer. This is when you may want to use Data | External Data | Custom Import which also provides a much greater number of data source types. In this article, you will learn how you can do this manually, or automate it with the help of a little VBA code (or similar).

In this example, I have used table of personnel that I have used before, but added an extra column, Shape Type, that simply has the value Rectangle, which is simply the name of a simple Master shape that I have added to my macro-enabled stencil, ExDataLinker.vssm.

  • tblOrgData for the structure
  • DV Step 1
  • DV Step 2
  • DV Step 3
  • DV Step 4
  • DV Basic Layout
  • DV Re-layed out with Data Graphics
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Synchronizing Visio Shape Fill Color (or almost any cell) across pages

I was recently asked how the color of one shape can be changed and for other shapes to be automatically updated to the same color … even if they are on different pages! Well, it is possible with Microsoft Visio’s awesome ShapeSheet formulas. In fact, this capability is not limited to the FillForegnd cell … check out the Microsoft Learn page about SETATREF(…), and view the video below to find out more.

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Positioning Visio Shape Text Block with a Control Handle

I was recently asked how a control handle can be added to a Visio shape so that it can be used to re-position the text block. Fortunately, it is extremely easy to setup, and requires just two formulas to be updated in the ShapeSheet. This is a great use of the SETATREF(…) function.

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Understanding Segments of Visio Geometry

I recently had to revise my understanding of the POINTALONGPATH(…) function in Visio because I was getting a #REF! error in some cases. My particular scenario requires a line with a number of vertices that are initially all in a straight line but can be moved by dragging controls around that each vertex is bound to. My assumption had been that a segment of a path is always between vertices in a geometry section, but this is not the case. So, I thought I would look deeper into the ShapeSheet functions of paths and segments. The following screenshots show a series of ShapeSheet formulas and the result of them on a single line that has 4 vertices that can be moved using a yellow control that they are bound to. Notice how the PATHLENGTH(…) formula fails to understand the segment parameter until the vertices are moved.

  • A straight line with 4 vertices
  • Then 1 vertex moved
  • With 2 vertices moved

In case the screenshots are a little dry, I have recorded a short video to explain further.

My own need was for a boundary shape around some other shapes where I wanted to make the segments disappear if they were outside of the Visio page. The unexpected #REF! values were causing distortions because the co-ordinates were failing to update.

However, I can see that this understanding of line segments and points will be useful in many types of diagrams.

For completeness, I thought I would try the same exercise with a PolyLineTo row rather than multiple LineTo rows.

  • A straight PolyLine with 4 vertices
  • Then 1 vertex moved
  • With 2 vertices moved

The PolyLineTo formula does have the advantage of being a single row, but this means that the PATHLENGTH(…) function does not have a segment index to that can be used to calculate with. In fact a PolyLineTo row does have two segments, but the last one is always 0 length!

  • Muliple LineTo Geometry rows
  • A single PolyLineTo Geometry ow

However, I was able to calculate the lengths of each segment in both cases, by using the co-ordinates of the Controls in the Tip cell for each Controls row with the SQRT(…) and POW(…) functions..

  • PATHLENGTH() matches trigonometry formula for LineTos
  • PATHLENGTH() not available for PolyLineTo row

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