Adding text to Network Rack Connection Points

Started by VBAN, November 01, 2010, 08:52:53 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

VBAN

Hello,
I would appreciate some guidance on how to add text to the rack connection points of the Visio shape>Network>Rack-Mounted Equipment>Rack.
As you may know, the left and right rail of the equipment rack has a vertical column of evenly spaced connection points that appear and dissappear when the rack is stretched to different heights.  This is a function of the IF statement in connection points section that references the total RU's.

I need text on every rack rail connection point and I need the text to appear/dissapear along with the connection points they are attached to.

You may be asking yourself, "why would anybody want text like that".  Well, I am creating a custom shape from scratch that needs that exact function and if I can figure out how to do it with the rack then I can begin creating my shape with the same function.

Perhaps I am asking for a lot?  I really wish there was a text field for Shapesheet>Connection Points.  I am hoping somebody has already done this and can tell me where to find it.

If I can get some assistance with this then I am confident I can create a user interface for the entry of the text.

Thank you so much for your assistance.





Paul Herber

Adding text to connection points would be a very nice feature, but it can't currently be done as far as I know, apart from manually adding a text box somewhere near the connection point. With some shapes it might then be possible to group the new text box with the main shape.
The problems start when you think how the connection point text will be displayed, the location of the text relative to the connection point, font, size, visible all the time, how does the connection point text move when the shape is rotated or resized?
Electronic and Electrical engineering, business and software stencils for Visio -

https://www.paulherber.co.uk/

aledlund

Some of the vendor specific racks/patch panels already have that in the shape. The difficulty I have seen is that the relative position of the connection point in the connections section and it's physical relevance is very dependendent on the designer of the shape (worse yet they are sometimes inconsistent when from the same vendor). In real world drawings this forces me to 'name' the connection points to ensure they are correct (thus custom shapes in custom stencils).
al

VBAN

#3
I was afraid that might be the case.

I have been thinking about placing a table over the shape, such that the text in the table lines up with the nodes on the rack shape.

That's not very elegant though.  I may just add a bunch of text blocks.  I think there are 101 connections on the rack shape...ouch!  Then perhaps I can use a similar IF statement to that used in the connection points:
=User.BaseHeight+IF(Prop.UCount>47,47,Prop.UCount)*User.OneUHeight
to hide the appropriate text blocks.

I can probably use the same X and Y for the text blocks that is being used for the connection points, and just add in an offset value.

The application will never want the shape to be rotated, so I'm not worried about that.  Resized though, the text would have to move in relation to the connection points, which would work if done as I propose above.