Walking Pin? Smart Rotation?

[marlo]

I've been struggling with this but it seems like it should be an easy thing to do...

I've grouped 2 shapes together which represent a duct temperature sensor.

They're 2 simple shapes, the primary shape is a rectangle with data graphic (text) inside it (information about the sensor, point address etc). I'll call

this the "Data" shape.

The other shape is just a graphical image representing the type of sensor (it's basically a slim box that represents the probe of the sensor). I'll call

this the "Sensor" shape.

I would like to rotate just the "Sensor" shape around the "Data" shape, on the 4 connection points of that shape (Top, Right, Bottom, Left), without rotating the "Data" shape or it's text.

The closest I came is moving the Pin to the "Sensor" shape so that it's in the middle of the "Data" Shape.  I then have to select the grouped shapes, and then highlight the "Sensor" shape, then I'm able to rotate the sensor. But when it's 90 or 270 degrees, the "Sensor" shape gets partly covered by the "Data" shape, since it's a rectangle and not a symmetrical square.

Any thoughts?

[Jumpy]

Easy way: Make Data a Square. Always rotate the whole shape, but put formula in the shapesheet of Data that counter rotates the text, so it's always up.

Not so easy: Add a User.Cell to the group that holds the information in which direction the Sensor faces, for example 0 for up, 1 for down, 2 for right, 3 for left.
Select a way to change that cell, for example: Actions, ShapeData, ...

Place formula's in the ShapeSheet of the Sensor that changes PinX, PinY, (maybe LocPinX, LocPinY), and either Hight and With or the Angle/Rotation of the Sensor-Shape.

[aledlund]

sounds like a great implementation for a mult-shape
http://blogs.office.com/b/visio/archive/2006/07/21/creating-a-multi-shape.aspx
al