Dimensioning in Visio Professional 2007

[manwave27]

Visio Guy - Please tell me that that your "babies" (dimensioning) have been removed from the latest version.
Microsoft has been trying so hard to de-cadacise Visio ever since they acquired it; looks like they succeeded.

[Visio Guy]

Ah another Jedi Rebel in our midst...

In Visio 2007, I've got them under: File > Shapes > Visio Extras. It might be that they are only available under the Professional version and not Standard...which is correct, as you should pay substantially extra for my stuff, dadnabbit! 

[manwave27]

Found em ! What a relief.

On a serious note:

I have owned every version of Visio since it 1st came out and am of the opinion that MS is really missing the boat in not promoting Visio Pro as a CAD alternative. It is so easy and user friendly; but i see a disturbing trend of it moving away from tech.

[Visio Guy]

I think it's sadly just economics. I too think the Visio engine could do wonderful things with CAD-adjacency and even illustration.

But MS makes its money by selling huge volume licenses to big companies. And these companies are all doing business process management, SharePoint stuff, flowchart stuff, and other terrible, terrible things

There are wonderful CAD-like apps that run on top of Visio (D-Tools SI, for one), but these products tend to be expensive and very valuable to a relatively small number of users (who see them as a bargain, by the way!) This doesn't fit into the "tack on a Visio sale to every copy of Office sold" model at the Mothership, and thus technical drawing continues to languish...

So we need to sign up several million Visio-less engineers, and take back what is rightfully ours from the Flowcharters!

[wapperdude]

So, if the big money is in flowcharts, orgcharts, etc., or, conversely, very little money in technical stuff, then shouldn't the great divide between Visio and Visio Pro be along those lines?     So, you get all the neat flow-fluffies with Visio Pro, and all of the techie stuff (schematics, etc.  -- uh, sorry Paul Herber, that cuts into your territory) available with Standard?     Better yet, re-name the products, yeah, you got it, Fluffio and Technio.   

[manwave27]

Visio Guy Your last sentence echos my sentiments exactly, however you explained it a little more gently than I would have; thinking more along the lines of "sissie" stuff.

[Visio Guy]

When I worked for Visio, there was:

Visio Standard - basic stuff
Visio Pro - std + software, networking & database stuff
Visio Technical - cad and facilities management and engineering

This is kind of what Wapperdude would like to see under his tree in December.

A big difference between 2007 Pro and Standard is the data-linking and data graphics. I think both flowchartresses and gearheads alike can benefit from those features.

[manwave27]

Were you the one who took the "steel library" out? - I think between 5.0 & 2000

[Visio Guy]

No, but I remember working on it!

Wow, I totally forgot about that. We thought that was so cool, because cad programs would deliver umteen different symbols for every possible size of beam cross section.

We just made one size for each beam shape, and you just chose standard sizes or entered the individual measurements and the geometry updated. I don't know if cad has caught up to that or not. I think AutoDesk finally added some sort of "Action Shape" to AutoCAD, but it's tricky to program...

[wapperdude]

Christmas???  Santa Claus???  Visio Guy???  I must be dreaming!  Visio Technical 4.1... Ah!  I still have that on my system.  So, where do you make the partition between Standard and Pro?  Seems the decision was to put almost anything and everything worthwhile into the Pro version and pretty much leave the Standard, well, sub-standard.  Sure, the flowchart stuff is nice and has some interesting features, but I'm a technical guy at heart, and the only time I really use the "charting" stuff is to answer questions on the forum.  Otherwise, nice features or not, I don't have a need for it, but schematic symbols, basic block diagrams, those I use all the time.  So, yes, I would like to have either the technical stuff moved to Standard or bring back the 3 versions.  Santa???  Oh my, must've dozed off.