Ok, I'm new here, but hope that you can help me. I'm new to Visio, and haven't really done much with Gimp or Photoshop before, so I guess you can call me an artistic newbie. LOL But, my boss has put me on a crash course to learn Visio for our needs. So far, so good with being able to spit out a few org charts for proposals, that could pass themselves off as professionaly done. However .. now he is wanting me to create a few things that are pushing my limited experience and knowledge in the program. I just received a copy of Visio 2007 Inside Out, but it doesn't cover all the questions I have. So .. here is my first question (of probably many to come):
I'm making an onion diagram style drawing, with circles that are layered on top of each other. I've been working on recreating a cover of a proposal that anothe company did, to sharpen my skills and get to the point that I can do some of the things my boss would like to see. I've figured out the photo aspects, and layering and all, but am having a problem with fill on a few arc patterns I made (even though I have grouped the image together), as well as word art (but heard I can create what I need in PowerPoint and then import or copy/paste it into Visio for my needs. So, here's the item I made, and the problem is, when I try to do fill on it, it won't show the inside of the item filled. What am I doing wrong?
Thanks,
Scott
Hi Scott,
Have a look at the visual-tutorial below. This might give you some tips.
Here's a quick summary for the search engines. To make concentric rings in Visio, or closed arc shapes do this:
1. Draw some circles
2. Give them no-fill, so that you can see them after the next step
3. Align them on center, using Shape > Align (center x, center y)
4. Draw some cutting lines, using Shape > Align to center
5. Select all, Shape > Operations > Fragment to cut the circles and lines into separate shapes
6. Delete the shapes that you don't need
Awesome, I'll have to give that a shot. There is so much to learn with this program, but I'm doing my best. LOL
Also, is there a way to work with pictures (jpg's, gif's, etc.) in the program so that I could create a circle, and crop the photo to the circle and then divide it as in your illustration? That would help a ton as well, but have yet to figure out how to crop the photo just just what is in the circle?!
Hi Scott,
Visio's official focus is "business diagrams", so some of the trickier illustration effects have never been implemented. Sophisticated image-clipping is one of those features. There's been some discussion on this here: http://visguy.com/vgforum/index.php?topic=494.0
There are some work-arounds that will get you some of what you want, but not necessarily easily. Have a look at these articles:
- Masking Images in Visio (http://www.visguy.com/2007/07/29/masking-images-in-visio/)
- Visio Tutorial: Advanced Fill Effects (http://www.visguy.com/2009/09/09/visio-tutorial-advanced-fill-effects/)
- Super Mask Visio Clipping Shape (http://www.visguy.com/2008/11/28/super-mask-visio-clipping-shape)
Thanks a ton. I'll have to check those links out and see what I can do. I managed to make the image shape the way I wanted in GIMP 2.0, but was wondering if I could just stay in Visio to do it. But then again, I also found out that I'd have to go into Power Point and do my word art and then import it over into Visio, so still can't stay in Visio completely I guess. LOL
Thanks for the info though. Glad I joined this site. I'm sure I'll be posting many, many more, moronic questions to come. LOL
Actually, thanks to the heroic efforts of JuneTheSecond, Visio has WordArt capability. Check out this thread: Visio Word Art (http://visguy.com/vgforum/index.php?PHPSESSID=98f8cd5086b3f9334a7ca25180061d08&topic=1006.0)
HTH
Wapperdude.
Good call, w-dude, thanks!