Visio Guy

Visio Discussions => Visio 2010 Issues => Topic started by: the dude on April 06, 2011, 12:22:49 AM

Title: Creating drawings in 2010 - noobie questions
Post by: the dude on April 06, 2011, 12:22:49 AM
Hi, just joined, LONG TIME Visio user but not anywhere "near the capability limits" of the software.  I'm trying to create some simple shop drawings in 2010 Pro, that contain simplified information from complicated customer drawings (just the info that the shop needs).  Essentially, these are "disks" with an outside and inside diameter, a thickness, some standardized notes (e.g. material type, ID of the tool used to cut the disk, etc.) and some custom notes (things not used on every drawing).  We want a standard title block that would list the customer, their part number, drawn-by, rev, etc.  All drawings will be letter-size, landscape orientation.  We need a standard grid, title block and standard "feature block" (to enter material type, tool ID, etc.).  The scale will vary and the existence and qty of custom notes (that can be in a separate section from the "feature block").

Got some questions about how this is best accomplished.  I did some searching (I use a lot of other forums and no better than to ask oft repeated questions!) but couldn't find much pertinent to this subject (did learn some new tricks though!).

1.  What is the best location/system for the standard title block, grid and standard "feature block".  I recently learned about background pages which looked good but you can't easily add text on a foreground page into part of a title block that is on the background page.  Is this best accomplished on different layers or is there another way?

2.  We used a standard grid, which worked well, but the size and position of the title block (and the "feature block") changed as we changed the scale.  Is there any way to "lock" this down (same position and size no matter what the scale)?

3.  I used dimensions in a former Pro version but these were really frustrating to use.  Made a 3" circle and, trying to use the circle diameter dimension, it was REALLY hard to make the dimension actually measure the circle diameter and not just some point on the paper.  Tired turning snap and glue off, didn't help.

I think if I could figure these things out, everything else would be easy.

Thanks!
The Dude
Title: Re: Creating drawings in 2010 - noobie questions
Post by: Jumpy on April 06, 2011, 06:45:34 AM
To question 1:

I use ShapeDate/Properties in the foreground page. For example, there is a property for
- "drawn by"
- "last edited"
-...
Those Data I enter in the ShapeData window, while on the front page.


To get that in the title block on the backgroundpage I use fields in the cells (subshapes) of the titleblock that reference the ShapeData cells of the frontpage in ShapeSheet-formulas.