Visio Diagram with a Large (LARGE) number of pages

[Michael]

Hi - I'm building a complete telecom business process framework that I have calculated that will consist of about 7,000 separate, interlinked pages (with between 4 & 20 shapes on each). I've now got just under 1,000 and Visio's started to get sluggish (and the file close on 20Mb).

Is there a limit on the size/number of pages in Visio? The eventual aim is to export the whole lot into html and create a series of diagrams where a user can navigate up and down a process hierarchical tree and along a low level process path that will show the full end-to-end, step-by-step process for something such as provisioning or billing.

The framework can be split into 16 logical sections, (the high level hierarchy and 15 logically separate low level segments) but (if I do this) I want to ensure the hyper-links remain intact when I create the HTML files. The end-to-end flows (can) move across all 15 low level segments, which is why I wanted (to try) to keep it all in one file.

Am I asking too much of Visio?

[vojo]

could do this as a document

1 visio file with overview....maybe each section or chapter
N visio files each as the details to a chapter

Use hyperlinks to hop between them

I am not aware of a limit....I have files with 30MB for say 10 pages.

[Paul Herber]

I think 1000 or so pages with 4 to 20 shapes is probably pushing the limit of resource memory.

[Paul Herber]

Well, I've done some tests and I have some results ...
I created a page of 10 shapes then used my utilities to duplicate the page n times (after having added some code to time each page copy), bunged the numbers into a spreadsheet, and hey presto!
File attached.

P.S. Visio 2010 Premium, Windows 7, 2.2GHz, 2GB Dell laptop.

[Michael]

Thanks, Paul - some interesting figures.

I've been plodding along with my original file today and got up to 1040 pages (plus 5 backgrounds). Compared with yesterdays page addition rate I've not seen any noticeable further slow-down in adding (duplicating) pages. I should add that I'm duplicating between 1 & 30 pages at a time, with the average number of duplications being 5 - 6, so I'm not really comparing like with like on the timings.

I'd very much like to try and get it all on one file if I can, so will post back up any significant events that occur - as you said earlier, I'm probably asking a lot of the resources available and breaking the file down, if I have to, will not be the end of the world...

[Michael]

OK - got the first phase done - just under 4200 pages. As Paul intimated the page creation process got progressively slower the more pages I added. What I didn't expect was the length of time taken to delete pages; I've got about 6 pages I now don't need/want in the final document. I deleted one and it took the best part of 40 minutes (maybe longer) before Visio returned access to me. Overnight job for the rest, I think.

Now I've been through the exercise, I'd not recommend it for anyone else - vojo's idea of separate files for each section seems eminently more sensible - providing the demarcation points are correctly selected. That being said, I'm not sure if the hyper-links between the files & pages would carry across when exporting the separate sections to HTML; guess I'll have to make some time to try that one out.

Final file size: 81.9M

Now all I have to do is rename about 2000 pages, then add the correct "horizontal" hyper-links to "daisy-chain" those low level process together to build end-to-end process flows - oh and actually build those processes on those, too...

[Michael Dag]

I have nothing to add on experiences, but isn't this where Visio should somehow meet with technology like  DeepZoom and PhotoSynth, where individual detail pictures created in Visio can be melted into an 'overall' picture with fantastic zoom capability? 

[vojo]

I actually thought he would have done "chapters" and hyperlink between chapters and pages.
managing, regardless of visio, 4200 pages seems daunting to me

[Visio Guy]

4000 PAGES!?

Please tell me you have plenty of backups in case the file goes corrupt!

[Michael]

OK. Latest updates.

I am now of the opinion that VoJo was correct so I have decided to break the file up into chapters. VoJo's wisdom wins over my stubborn streak, so thank you (and take a bow javascript:void(0).

Back Ups. Oh, yes! 4 local and one to my website server (been burnt oh so many times before).

Creating HTML (the original project) - have been running the Sandrila alternative Web page creator on a copy of my original file on my laptop...since December 23rd! 4 days later, it's between a third and halfway through creating the .png files.

Casewise conversions. Again I had problems converting the original large file to Casewise (This tool now has a Visio front-end, but I don't have a copy of that), but these problems actually appear down to data errors in the diagrams (spelling mistakes, additional spaces at the end of text strings...that sort of thing). Breaking the file up allowed me to correct these errors and the smaller files seem to be uploading/converting OK.

I'm tempted to go back and error correct the original file and try again (that stubborn streak of mine again), but if I can build hyper linked HTML pages either through Casewise or on the new, smaller "chapter" files, it would simply be an academic exercise.

Thanks, again to all the other suggestions - I'll try and respond a little quicker next time.