Every time I move an object in my block diagram my arrows all go insane

[eburt]

Hey there,

I have been working with Visio for greater than 10 years now and I have NEVER seen the issue I see in Visio2010. When I am working on a block diagram and am using arrows to point to different blocks (the ones that you can adjust the width and fill color on), if I add an arrow from the library tab, should I happen to drop that arrow in the wrong spot on the page, ALL the arrows in that drawing snap to different points all over the page. Some go to the middle top of the page, some stay on the blocks and snap to the snap points on the blocks, others stray from one corner of the page to the other. There is no rhyme or reason, and it doesn't matter how long the arrow was to begin with, it will stretch or shrink to fit its loony agenda over which I have no control. And, to make things worse, there is NO UNDO!!! If I haven't saved for a while, forget it, I have to close and lose all my work to open the drawing fresh and start over. Also, if I try to move blocks the same things happens, though usually it is localized to the arrows and blocks associated with what I am moving. And FORGET copy and pasting, it just creates HUGE headaches. I have all the snap to connection points options turned off, and all other functions that seem like they would have any bearing on this. It is very maddening. Again, this ONLY happens in Visio 2010, never before have I seen this issue.

I used to love Visio and swear by it, but now I swear at it and I totally dread having to update any of my drawings. This is very maddening. I see people complaining about this all over the web but I see no solutions or anyone acknowledging there is an issue. I see plenty of people saying - well I've used Visio for years and never seen that happen - and they don't have 2010 and they aren't doing these types of drawings. I have attached a before and after for perusal. It is driving me completely nuts. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[Paul Herber]

It's caused by a new feature that has been added to Viso 2010 that is enabled by default (usually a very bad idea).
right-click on the page tab -> Page Setup -> Page Size
and ensure you have a proper page size defined i.e disable "Let Visio expand the page as needed". Just click the Pre-defined size button, that should do it.

[eburt]

Hi there,

Thanks for that, and it may be causing part of the problem. However, I did fix that and set the page to a defined size (11x17) in both the page size and printer paper size, but still if I grab a block with an arrow the arrows fly around the page. Then when I try to undo it they go to the top and left and right middle sections of the drawing. Also, if I try to copy the entire block and paste it in a new drawing (with a defined page size) the arrows go nuts again.

I will try a fresh drawing and see if it makes any difference though. However, we usually copy from previous drawings and elaborate to cut out a lot of work.

Thanks for the quick response!

[Paul Herber]

Well, you can tell there is a routeing issue because if you grab the left-hand or bottom page edges and drag them then various lines reroute themselves.

[eburt]

Right, but what I am trying to figure out is how I stop that from happening  .  It has never been this difficult to work on drawings in previous versions of Visio. I have turned off anything that "auto-routes" arrows or snap connects them to the connectors on the various boxes, etc. I have manually added in the routing which is why I don't understand why things keep snapping to the handles or connector points or I forget what they are called. But still, if I move an arrow I am trying to place too close to the bottom of the box I am working in, it automatically snaps to the midpoint at the bottom of the box, the same point auto-route would connect to. I want this to stop. It is just so frustrating  I have been struggling with this for the last 8 or 9 months...

Thanks again for your help.