Am I fighting against Visio 2007 here

[AndyWillis]

Hi All
I've been using Visio for about 4 years, but I feel that the way I'm trying to use the thing is not as intended.
Firstly - the dynamic grid.
This just seems to be a way of getting things off grid.  Zoom in and place a line, zoom out and it's off grid.  To stop this happening I now alway use a fixed 5mm grid.  Am I missing something here?
Next  - connection points.  Library shapes to not drag in on grid and connection points are almost never on grid.
Then - Connector tool.  It seems crazy the way the connector jumps away from the path I intend to where visio think it should go.  Straighteneing them up takes time, and despite my snap and glue preferences the connectors lines are almost never on grid.  I also have an issue placing an arrow on one end rather than both as it seems a 50/50 chance which end is which.  I can just see a tiny + and x on the end boxes but these are so small as to be virtually unreadable, can they be made larger?
Finally - If I group, either by selection or grouping in the Visio sense, some shapes and move them they are not on grid, I have to nudge the group to get them in posistion

Battling against Visio wastes a load of time and yet if I don't my (mainly system) diagrams are a mess.

Any suggestions appreciated

Andy

[Jumpy]

Maybe you could alter some shapes from the Visio library to fit on your 5mm Grid so that for example the connection points are aligned with the grid, too. Store those shapes in your own stencil, thus creating your own library.

Somwhere (in page menu?) you can adjust the "magnetic" force of you gridline. That is how strong are newly placed shapes are forced to snap to / align with the grid, and (maybe) how strong are connectorce forced to run along the grid lines.

Other method could be shapesheet formulas that allow PinX/Y values for shapes only to multiples of 5mm (there is an actual thread about that here).

[wapperdude]

First, I rarely use metric, but, the behavior should not be influenced by English vs metric.  But, I did switch over, so here's what I found on a VERY limited experiment size:

Better grid alignment if I set Page scale to 1mm = 1mm rather than the default no scale.

Default grid snapping is weak, so, go to Tools > Snap & Glue > Advanced.  Move the slider for Grid to be much higher.

Connectors are dynamic.  They will re-route.  Not aware of an option to disable that.  There have been topics on this site regarding that, but, I don't recall any "Easy button" solution.

HTH
Wapperdude

[AndyWillis]

Thanks for the replies.
I have Snap set to max for the Grid (30) and the rest set to below 10.  I'll set the non grid strengths to 1 and the grid to 30 and see what happens.

I still feel I'm missing something re the dynamic grid.


Andy 

[vojo]

13 years of use....not trying to brag, but 100MB files.....and I have never seen the problems you are having

RE grid....note that as you zoom out, the grid is abstracted out.   aka at 400% it might be every mm....100% every 5mm....so if you line up on
4mm, zoom out, it looks like its off grid.   Also, if you are 100% and try to snap....it will snap to aforementioned 5mm...not 1mm.
Typically, what I will do is either line up at 100% then zoom in to make sure or whatever if there is any question.

RE connectors:  I always use home grown adjustable connectors.   built alot of connectors off Junes stuff for isometric diagrams.
Yes, can be tedious....but drawings I tend to do are pretty detailed, so dont leave routing to chance.