Aligning and snapping shapes problem

[David.P]

Hi Chris & Forum,

time and again, I run into problems with the alignment of (complex) shapes or groups.

Below picture shows an example. There are three shapes, one of which is a drawing or a shape group (here: the little diagram).

I've added connection points to the three shapes in order to snap the connection points of the three shapes together.

It works perfectly if I grab either the orange circle or the green rectangle and move them over the diagram. Circle and/or rectangle perfectly snap into place onto the diagram by glueing the connection points together.

If however I drag the diagram over either the circle or the rectangle, nothing happens at all. No connection point attraction, neither snapping nor glueing action.

All connection points are set up both for inwards and outwards action.

Is there anything more I could do to align that diagram's connection point to one of the other two shapes, or even to just anything on the page?

Thanks heaps already,

Cheers David.P

PS: Visio 2003
[edit:] Attached the Visio file

[wapperdude]

There's something about your groupped grid shape.  I completely ungroupped it, then re-groupped, added inny-outy connection point and it works as expected.       

Wapperdude

[David.P]

Whoaaaaaaaaaaaa Wapper that's amazing!

It surely works and now my diagram shape runs in circles around its Connection Point snapped to the rectangle

Thanks lots!
Cheers David.P

[David.P]

Hi forum,

I got the same problem again.

The orange circle in below drawing snaps beautifully in place when moved over the little box's connection point -- but I just can't seem to be able to move and snap the box (with its connection point) to the circle, or to the help lines, or to just about ANYTHING on the page... 



Thanks heaps already for any help how to snap the box's connection point to some other shape....

Cheers David.P

(The Visio drawing is attached)

[David.P]

OK this is strange....

Ungrouping and regrouping the little box didn't do the trick. Strangely, the lines the box consist of can't be couloured either (the box had been imported from CAD via *.dxf) .

However doing a "Join" command on the box first changed its lines to standard behaviour (can be coloured now), and second, made the connection point in the box FINALLY snap to whatever it should snap to...!

Thus, problem SOLVED 

Cheers David.P

[David.P]

Hi forum,

again, a snapping problem:



I need to resize a group of two rectangles such that the smaller, black rectangle snaps to the guide to the right.

However, for the life of me, I just can't seem to get there. Not even by adding inny-outy (or any type of) connection points.

Thanks for any help or ideas!

[vojo]

One other aspect to consider (though I dont think it applies to these examples).
If the page has enough shapes or the shapes involved are complex enough, connection points dont work right (cant actually
attach anything to them).

For perspective, it usually happens to me when over 1000 or so shapes/subshapes on a page.

Another way you could go is if you make the locpinx and locpiny = 0,0  (bottom left corner).   Then I believe align would
line the shapes up against that reference for each shape  (locpinx = 0.5* pinx really only works if you want to center align in X direction).

[wapperdude]

The easiest way is to change how you group the shapes.  The guidelines basically snap and glue to the alignment box.  Adding an interior connection point typically has unreliable gluing properties.  I could get your grouped shape to stick to the guideline occasionally, but, it took a lot of effort.

Since your black filled rectangle is the shape you want to glue, make it the "master" of the group.  So, ungroup the two, then, select the black rectangle and convert it to group.  Open its shapesheet and under protection section, set the LockCalcWH entry to 1.  This prevents the alignment box from changing.  Now, add the crosshatched rectangle to the group.   That should do it.

Of course, that doesn't help glue the larger rectangle to the guidelines.  You can add a connection point, but, it'll still be somewhat hit or miss if it glues to the guideline.

Wapperdude

[David.P]

Wapperdude! Your idea brought me to the right track!

First, I ungrouped the rectangles. Then, I made the crosshatched rectangle smaller than the black rectangle.

After this, I grouped the two rectangles again. Then, inside the group, I enlarged the crosshatched rectangle again to its original size. This way, the group handles stay where they are: at the corner of the (now smaller) black rectangle, while the crosshatched rectangle now extends outside of the group handles.

Then finally, the group can be easily resized such that the black rectangle's corners (=group corners) snap to the guide.

Thank you very much for giving me this idea!

[David.P]

On a related problem: has someone already found a solution for the following snapping problem: If two things (two lines for example; same for shapes, groups, whatever...) are isolated somewhere on the page, it is no problem to snap them at wherever place, be it shape boundaries or line ends, be it connection points etc.

However if the same two objects are inside a drawing with (lots of) other shapes around them, snapping of the two target shapes can grind down to a complete halt.

It does not even work if connection points are added only to those two objects and snapping is restricted to only connection points.

They still don't snap -- if there is other stuff present in the same drawing area.

Is there a solution or a workaround for this problem?

[David.P]

Is there really no solution for the problem that the snapping of shapes other than lines becomes virtually impossible in drawing areas where there are a considerable number of other shapes present?

[Yacine]

Can you upload a drawing?

[David.P]

I will, as soon as I come across a suitable drawing.

[qholmes]

I have a similar problem to this. I have groups of shapes for technical drawings that I would like to snap or glue to lines in other groups.. I can not get something to work consistently.
I tried Changing the groups to 1D behavior which actually worked but then I lost the rotate handle which I need.. That was from a different post. So using the bounding box to snap or glue.. I am not sure anything actually snaps to anything. I find the whole Glue/Snap system in Visio very bad.

When I changed the behavior to 1D and set the LocPinx,y location to where I wanted it worked great and would glue or snap to my center line in my Track Group. That is the kind of interaction I would like. But I need the rotate handle active... I could rotate it using the Size/Position yes..

There must be a way to use a connection point or something to create a working solution?

Ideas?

Thanks

Quentin