Visio Guy

Solution-specific Visio Discussions => Network Diagramming => Topic started by: shayneneal on October 04, 2010, 06:02:11 PM

Title: scaling block diagram backgrounds
Post by: shayneneal on October 04, 2010, 06:02:11 PM
Is there any way to create a background with a title block that would not need to be scaled differently for every new diagram i work on?  Currently I have three title blocks for the different scales that I use most but it takes hours and hours to start a new document each time that I need a new scale.  I would love a way to have the background pages (or any page of choice) not be affected by the scale!

Thanks,

Shayne
Title: Re: scaling block diagram backgrounds
Post by: vojo on October 05, 2010, 02:17:25 AM
Not too bad to do

- Get the shapes they way you want
- group the entire set of shapes
- create custom props   something like props.scalex and props.scaley....set each to 1
- go into each shape in the group and do the following
      - change the width cell to guard(width*<group shape num>!props.scalex)
      - change the height cell to guard(width*<group shape num>!props.scaley)
- copy to background page.

So now when you select group==>custom props....you can set the X scale and Y scale for the group
(you can get more slick with the scale if you want.....aka can do something similar for font size).

Now obviously you could do this by just grouping the shapes and manual change the width/hieght....this approach just gives you more precision.
Title: Re: scaling block diagram backgrounds
Post by: shayneneal on October 05, 2010, 06:12:58 AM
VOJO... your instructions are more than just a little over my head but I am excited to learn more... if I follow these instructions, would it allow another user to change the scale of a page without affecting the background or would they be required to do something like what you describe every time a scale setting is changed?

I was hoping to find a solution (even a convoluted one) that would allow me to make a document's page immune to scaling on other pages.  Is that what this is, a one step solution to ignoring scale settings forever in the drawing?

Thanks!
Title: Re: scaling block diagram backgrounds
Post by: wapperdude on October 05, 2010, 02:27:59 PM
When you say background with a title block, do you mean a title block on a background page?  Or is this "background" on the drawing page? 

If you put it on a background page, it will remain unchanged as you change the scale of the drawing page. 

If you have it on the drawing page, consider putting it on a background page.  The drawing page can then reference the background, and as long as you don't change the sheet size, then everything should work as you desire.

HTH
Wapperdude