Creating Well Connected Assemblies with 1D Visio Shapes

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A 1D line with and without height

A 1D line with and without height

Visio shapes can be either 1D (one dimensional) or 2D (two dimensional). Unfortunately, there is no 3D shape although you can produce a “3D-like” 2D drawing by using the same methods as you would on paper… isometric, axonometric, perspective, etc. Most Visio drawings that simulate 3D are drawn as isometrics… but I digress and will cover that in a future …Continue reading

Why are my Visio files so large?

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This Document Stencil contains over 100 unused master... the only one used is at the lower right

Something we’ve heard often over the years from various clients, customers, and users is, “There’s not much in my drawing… why is the file so big?” Of course, there can be several reasons for this but one of the most common is the concept of “unused master shapes.” Huh? I’m glad you asked.

The icons on a Visio stencil represent what’s formally known as …Continue reading

Copying a Visio graphic as a metafile can improve performance

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Visio has the capability of creating almost photo-realistic graphics with as much detail as you want. However, the more detail (i.e. lines, gradient color fills, shading, etc.) in a shape, the more sluggish it will be when you move it around a page or drop it from a stencil. One key reason for this is also one of Visio’s most powerful features… the ShapeSheet. Every geometric element, such as a line or polygon, has a calculation engine behind it known as the ShapeSheet. Each time you move a shape, the cells in all …Continue reading