How to change parent of a shape which is inside a group to a page?

[nashwaan]

The Parent property of a shape is Read/Write. A shape can be placed inside another shape provided that the other shape is of type Group.
According to Visio help on Parent property, you can also change the parent of a shape from a group to a page. I assume this means you can place a shape, which is inside another shape, directly on a page.

I tried to test the latter scenario, but an error generates!

Here is the sample code:

Code Select Expand


Sub testChangeParent1()
    Dim shp1 As Shape, shp2 As Shape, shpGroup As Shape
    Set shp1 = ActivePage.DrawRectangle(1, 1, 3, 3)
    Set shp2 = ActivePage.DrawOval(2, 2, 4, 4)
    Call ActiveWindow.Select(shp1, visSelect + visDeselectAll)
    Call ActiveWindow.Select(shp2, visSelect)
    Set shpGroup = ActiveWindow.Selection.Group
    shp1.Parent = ActivePage.PageSheet   ' <----- generates error: "An exception occured"
End Sub


Does anyone know why?

Thanks,
Yousuf.

[Jumpy]

The Parent is not the PageSheet, but the page itself. Maybe that is wrong?

[nashwaan]

I tried that and it generated same error!

I believe this should be ActivePage.PageSheet and not ActivePage.

From Visio Help (Shape.Parent):

In general, an object's parent is the object that contains it. If a Shape object is a member of a group, the parent is that group. Otherwise, its parent is a Page or a Master object.
When assigning a new parent shape, you must assign a Shape object. If you want to assign a page or master to be the parent of a shape, you must assign the Shape object returned by the Page or Master object's PageSheet property.

Any Idea why the code in my first post fails?

Thanks,
Yousuf

[Jumpy]

I can only test it this evening, but
maybe it works the complicated way?:

Code Select Expand


Sub PagePageSheet_Example()
Dim vsoShape As Visio.Shape
Dim vsoShapes As Visio.Shapes
Dim vsoPage As Visio.Page
Set vsoPage = ActivePage
Set vsoShapes = vsoPage.Shapes
Set vsoShape = vsoShapes("ThePage")
'...
shp1.Parent = vsoShape
End Sub



or (although I can't think why) it has something to do with the last sentence of the help, that you didn't quote:

A shape and its parent shape must be in the same containing page or containing master. If the new parent is not a Shape object, or if the ContainingPage or ContainingMaster property of the parent shape is different from that of the shape, Microsoft Visio raises an exception.

[nashwaan]

Sorry for late reply...

I tried your suggestion and it didn't work either. 

Any more suggestion?   

Thanks,
Yousuf.

[AndyW]

This will work, by selecting your sub-shape and then removing that from the group.

Code Select Expand

    Visio.ActiveWindow.DeselectAll
    Visio.ActiveWindow.Select Application.ActiveWindow.Page.Shapes.ItemFromID(2), visSubSelect
    Visio.ActiveWindow.Selection.RemoveFromGroup


[nashwaan]

Thanks AndyW for your reply. Your workaround suggestion works without a problem.

But still, why .Parent property doesn't work when changing a shape's parent from a group to a page. This should work as this is advertised in the Visio Help for Shape.Parent (unless i am missing something here).

Anyone has tried this with success? 

Thanks,
Yousuf.