Maintaining shapes in several stencils

Michelle · December 06, 2011, 03:56:38 PM

I have some shapes that will be used in several different stencils. This means having to make the same change many times over if an edit or update is needed. Is there any way to have the stencils pull a shape from a central location so updates only need to be made one time?

TIA,
Michelle

Paul Herber · December 06, 2011, 04:37:05 PM

In a case like this I would have one master stencil containing the master shape, also keep a note in this stencil of which stencils need to be updated when the master changes (just use a simple text box shape in the stencil to do this).

PS: when you change the master and need to update the subordinate stencils, always delete the shape from the subordinate stencils first, then copy the updated master into the stencils, by doing that you will maintain the master's Name and NameU properties. Otherwise you will end up having masters named shape.xx.

Michelle · December 06, 2011, 04:42:01 PM

I think I see what you are saying... Does this master stancil need to be seen in the template?

I'm thinking it would be best if the master stencil was more of a behind the scenes thing for the administrator, and not for the end user to have access to...

Paul Herber · December 06, 2011, 04:44:22 PM

Most certainly. The master stencil is only for use by development/admin.

Michelle · December 06, 2011, 04:45:52 PM

Thank you, Thank you Thank YOU!

Michelle · December 13, 2011, 03:48:35 PM

This method is working wonderfully, Thanks again!

However, I was wondering... I have been making changes in the master stencil, then copying shapes to their proper stencil. Could I save myself the "copy/paste" part of this equasion in the future if I instead made my changes then pasted a shortcut into the other stencils? I did a quick one, and the shape seems to act the same when placed in the drawing... Would this work in the way I want and automatically update the shortcuts in the other stencils? Is there a drawback to this method? I'm kind of nervous to just change all of my shapes in the stencils to shorcuts, never having done this before...

Is the tie maintained between master stencil and other stencils even if the master is not in the template for the user?

Thanks for looking

Paul Herber · December 13, 2011, 04:19:39 PM

If you try creating a shortcut to a master, then right-click -> Edit Master Shortcut
you will see that the Target section contains a Master as well as a Stencil. The target stencil contains a full address of the target stencil, so, you could perhaps save the refering stencils as .VSX files and edit the ShortcutURL to remove the full path. Not sure if it would work though.