2D vs 3D vs gluing connectors

[Skaperen]

I haven't used Visio for about a decade, now.  Last use was a single number version (I think "4") before Microsoft bought the company.  It was on Windows 98.  That's just so you know where I'm coming from.  Now I'm using Visio 2007 on Windows 7 and things have changed a bit.

I'm used to lots of 2D shapes, primarily boxes with visualization inside the box.  Connector glue-on points were on the edges and I could add more as needed.  Now it seems most shapes are non-perspective 3D-like, which means the outline is not a neat rectangle.  I'd prefer to go back to the 2D shapes, if I could find some (maybe I can dig up the old Visio CD and try to see if extracting old shapes from there will work).  So if anyone has pointers to stencils specifically with 2D shapes, that might help (I already downloaded many stencils from visiocafe but they seem to be primarily 3D stuff).

I might be able to use 3D shapes, anyway, if I can figure out how to get the connectors glued on so they keep their alignment.  The problem is that the edges are at angles that when I do more than one connector, and move the shape around, the connectors end up having angles to them.  With 2D, on each shape, multiple connectors were attached at sides with equal spacing.  But with the angled sides in 3D shapes, moving the shapes causes the effective vertical and horizontal distances to change.  So what I was trying to do was create glue points in a straight line inside the shape.  But that wasn't working.  The blue X was there, but I couldn't get connectors to attach to them.  The connector was lay out as if attached, but when I move the shape, the connector didn't move with the shape.  It looked like the glue point wasn't really on the object.

Consider 2 shapes dropped onto the page.  Place 3 or 4 straight connectors between them.  Now move the shapes around.  Those 3 or 4 connectors should always be perfectly parallel AND equal distant all the way (and this was never difficult in the old Visio with straight vertical or horizontal edges on shapes).

[Yacine]

Hi Skaperen,
so many points in one post, tss tss tss

So if anyone has pointers to stencils specifically with 2D shapes, that might help

What kind of shapes are you looking for? There are plenty 2D shapes in V2007. Tell us what kind of drawings you do.

if I can figure out how to get the connectors glued on so they keep their alignment

The connector was lay out as if attached, but when I move the shape, the connector didn't move with the shape.

Watch the enclosed file, play around with the shapes and the connectors and make sure that snaping and gluing to vertices and handles is switched on.

Those 3 or 4 connectors should always be perfectly parallel AND equal distant all the way

I tried what you did and it worked just fine. Check the VSD file.

So to bring it to a point (actually 2)
1) make sure you understand the snapping and gluing options.
2) Play with the directions of the connection points in the shapesheet

[Skaperen]

The many points is because I'm trying to look at more than one way to solve the problem.

I'm doing network topology diagrams right now.  These are the kinds that lay out the network traffic paths, as opposed to physical equipment layouts, but do show physical or virtual equipment (VLAN 1 might be a completely separate object than VLAN 2 even though both are running on the same switch or switch array).

I will check the snapping and gluing settings to be sure they are as you say to be.  The Windows computer is in another room so I'll take things over there later and try them out (no net access from there).  Thanks.

[aledlund]

free

http://www.visiocafe.com/

vs FEE (which is where the original addin shapes came from)

http://www.altimatech.com/home/index.php

al

[Skaperen]

As mentioned, I downloaded a few stencils from there.  Still got 3D.  Do you know which ones have 2D network parts?  That would be 2D as in shapes that have rectangular outer edges, but with inside renderings that look like something appropriate.  And of course, that can have text (but everything can have text, right?).

[aledlund]

most of the 2d stuff is vendor specific, what are you looking for? There are a few generic shapes in the rack diagram materials that MS supplies.
al

[Skaperen]

The shapes that were in the old Visio (maybe version 4) that I had on Win98 would be nice.  I'm thinking of trying to extract them from there somehow and see if they are still compatible.

[vojo]

something like these?