Resizing shape problem

[hows_it_work?]

Hello everyone

I am using Visio 2003 to create building floor plans.  I resize my drawing by selecting all the lines etc and drag the selection from the top corner to reduce the size.  For some reason the plan distorts and an error message appears 'Shape protection and/or layer properties prevent complete execution of this command'  Attached is an example of what I am trying to reduce in size.

Any help will be gratefully received

[Paul Herber]

In a drawing like this all the shapes connect together in various complicated ways, it's never an easy task to just resize the whole lot (whether the shapes are grouped or not. P.S. Best not to group all the shapes.)
Depends on exactly what your aims are, it might be best to just adjust the drawing scale (menu File -> Page Setup -> Drawing Scale) and set the scale from "2cm = 1000 mm" to a Custom Scale, I've just tried "2cm = 1300 mm" to give a bit more scape to the drawing.
Another way to do this might just be to enlarge the paper size. Hold down the Shift key and drag the paper margins. When it comes to printing you can set the Print Zoom (menu File -> Page Setup -> Print Setup) to fit to 1 sheet up and down.

[hows_it_work?]

Many thanks for your reply.  I see what you are suggesting with regards to page scaling.  I wondered though if it was not possible to the 'flatten' the floor plan I attached so it was one shape instead of muiltiple shapes.  Does that make sense?

[Paul Herber]

Yes and no but mainly no. The Plan addon expects to see the special building plan shapes, if they are grouped then this won't work.
Grouping shapes doesn't always work as expected either, in this case because many of the shapes take their dimensions from the shape custom properties.
If you can solve the problem by changing the scale then that is the fix you want.

[hows_it_work?]

I guess Ill just have to master re-scaling.  Do you know if Visio 2007 has the same quirk?

And thanks for you time

[Paul Herber]

I very much doubt if it has changed.