Using Visio 2013. I've been given some files with complex layers (components and wiring are scattered and reused across multiple layers).
I simply want to take a layer, make a duplicate, and modify the duplicated layer.
The logical approach would seem to be:
1. Create new layer.
2. 'Select by Type...Layers', and select the 'source' layer.
3. 'Assign to Layer', and add the checkbox for the new layer.
In my mind, this should assign/add all source layer components to the new layer.
But I get all kinds of erratic behaviors. It pulls in stuff from other layers (even from layers that are locked and invisible), and it also has negative affects other various layers that I don't want to change.
Not sure what's up.
Check out Paul Herber's Super Utlities.
Wapperdude
Thanks for the ment (mensh?), Wayne, but the utilities can't do this.
A layer is just a row of attributes within the page shapesheet, very easy to duplicate a layer within the layers dialog.
But a layer does not "contain" shapes. So there is no easy way to duplicate the contents of a layer. In fact there is no real concept of that within Visio. Shapes can be members of multiple layer, a grouped shape may have sub-shapes on different and various layers.
Yeah, after looking at the shapesheets, I came to that conclusion too.
It seems that the layer assignments are stored within the individual objects...the layer itself doesn't seem to have a list of assigned objects. So it's not as simple as copying a layer 'list'.
Oooops. Misread, well, selective reading ... only the need to duplicate layers registered in my mind.
Wapperdude
And it seems that the 'Select by Type'/'Assign to' logic has the following shortcoming.
Layer 1 - A B C << existing layer that I want to copy
Layer 2 - A D E << existing layer that shares object 'A'
Layer 3 - A B C << new layer that I want to assign A B C
When I 'Select by...Layer 1', it picks A B C. This is great.
But when I 'Assign to', Layer 2 is included in the assignment list because it shares object 'A'. Visio doesn't distinguish that Layer 2 is only a partial user of the selected objects.
So when I add A B C to Layer 3, it also adds the selected objects to Layer 2.
Layer 1 - A B C
Layer 2 - A B C D E << I don't want B and C here, but Visio's logic causes this
Layer 3 - A B C << This is great, it's what I want
So it seems to me, that the Assign To feature should have a 'partial' checkbox function, like some of the dialogs in MS Word...so it doesn't reassign everything to partially affected layers.
Since that's not gonna happen, I think my only solution is to pick through my hundreds of individual objects and cables and make the assignments on a case-by-case basis. Yuck
Thanks for your help :P