A reader of my blog recently asked whether it is possible to use the icons in out-of-the-box Visio as the main shape, and get it to refresh with data. I pointed out that all of the icon sets are available in a handy stencil under Visio Extras, so all that remains is to make the icon display change according to data values.
Whenever I have been asked why I like Visio so much, I have usually cited its ability to connect shapes together; its ability to link to data; and its programmability. Visio 2010 formally added a structured diagram concept and API, and the premium edition introduced diagram validation. So many different types of Visio diagrams require elements to be connected together correctly, and I often have to add a little extra into the connectors to make them smarter.
A connector is a Visio shape that has 1-D behavior. The most used example is the Dynamic connector shape, which not only connects elements together, but can also re-route itself according to the layout and routing options selected for a page.
[Read more…] about Adding More Smartness to Visio ConnectorsI was recently asked how I would approach improving the Logic Gate 2 in the Circuits and Logic template, on the Analog and Digital Logic stencil. Well, this had resonance with me because I had often wondered why these shapes were not smarter than they are, so I looked more deeply into the shape construction to see how the Logic Gate 2 shape works, and how it could be improved so that the values of the inputs could be set and the logic applied to provide the correct output value. Eventually, similar improvements can be applied to all of the master shapes so that the connected logic diagram responds to input value changes.
The Logic Gate 2 shape has Shape Data rows to provide some configuration. Firstly, you can change the number of inputs from 2 to 5, and the number of outputs from 1 to 3:
I have been analysing a client’s Visio shapes recently to find out how to increase their performance. These shapes have numerous cells with ShapeSheet functions that reference other cells in the same shape, in parent shapes, in the page and in the document. I suspected that there may be some formulas producing erroneous results, so I wanted to write a macro to check if there are any cell formula evaluation errors in the shape, or its sub-shapes.
A Visio Cell object has an Error property that returns the error code generated by the last evaluation of the result. See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/ff767327.aspx for more information about the the Error property, and http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/ff766442.aspx for the VisCellError constants.
In order to test a macro that can check a shape for errors, I fist needed to generate examples of each possible error in a shape. So, I created a User-defined Cells section with seven rows – one for each possible VisCellError code value.
I was able to generate errors in all rows, except for the VisErrorName row. No matter how hard I tried, I could not get Visio to generate this error. I am fairly certain that I could generate errors (accidently) before Visio 2010, but I think that Microsoft have made this error much rarer because of the way they substitute last known values when a referenced cell or row is deleted.
So, now that I had a shape with errors, I then duplicated it, and made the duplicate copy part of a grouped shape. This way I could test my function, CheckForErrors(), which simply iterates through all of the selected shapes, and their sub-shapes, and prints out any cells with errors into the Immediate Window:
My macro printed out the following table:
So, I can now check any shape to see if it has any cell errors within it.
The VBA code that produced the listing is :
Public Sub CheckForErrors() Dim shp As Visio.Shape Debug.Print Now() Debug.Print "Parent.Name", "Shape.Name", "Section", "Row", "Column", "Name", "Error", "Formula" For Each shp In Visio.ActiveWindow.Selection CheckShapeForErrors shp Next End Sub Private Sub CheckShapeForErrors(ByVal shp As Visio.Shape) Dim shpSub As Visio.Shape Dim iSect As Integer Dim iCol As Integer Dim iRow As Integer Dim cel As Visio.Cell For iSect = visSectionFirst + 1 To Visio.visSectionLast For iRow = 0 To shp.RowCount(iSect) - 1 For iCol = 0 To shp.RowsCellCount(iSect, iRow) - 1 Set cel = shp.CellsSRC(iSect, iRow, iCol) If cel.Error <> VisCellError.visErrorSuccess Then Debug.Print cel.Shape.Parent.Name, cel.Shape.Name, iSect, iRow, iCol, cel.Name, cel.Error, cel.Formula End If Next iCol Next iRow Next iSect For Each shpSub In shp.Shapes CheckShapeForErrors shpSub Next End Sub
I would be interested to find out of anyone who can create a VisErrorName for me!
A Visio user recently asked how to add a salary amount for an Org Chart person automatically, based on their selected Level. I thought it was a bit long to answer in the forum, so I have written my answer below. It demonstrates how you can have your own custom template that works with the Organization Chart add-on in Visio.
My approach to creating a custom template that still uses the Organization Chart Add-On is to create a new drawing from the built-in template, and then to add extra properties to it.
First, select Show Document Stencil to view all of the local copies of the built-in master shapes. If they are not there, then simply drag and drop them from the built-in stencil on to the first page, and then delete the shapes on the page. This will not delete the local copies of the masters.
[Read more…] about Creating a Custom Org Chart Template with Extra Properties
I have been creating roadmaps in Visio lately, and the client is only concerned with the months and years, so I thought it would be sensible to use a Date Format Picture to display only the month and year in the Shape Data window. What I did not expect is that the mere existence of this Date Format Picture would alter the actual date stored in the cell. In this blog, I layout my concerns about the Calendar popup that is provided for Date type Shape Data rows.
In the following example, I have created a shape, coloured pale orange below, and added 25 Date type Shape Data rows. I have not applied any format to Property1, but then I have applied each of the 17 suggested Date Format Patterns provided on a drop-down list in the Define Shape Data dialog. Finally, I added a further 7 patterns manually. I then selected Today as the value for every single Shape Data row:
