Curved Wall shape odd activity when changed.

[fixit9660]

Hi All,

I'm trying to create a room shape to represent a room with 3 sides straight and the fourth a curved wall for a Bay window.

I couldn't find a way to edit the standard square 4 sided room so I decided to group together three straight walls and add a fourth curved wall.
I'm using the standard shapes supplied with Visio.
Grouping the three straight walls is no problem, and adding the fourth curved wall as it comes is also no problem. The problem occurs when I try to reduce the curve of the wall, making it straighter if you will.
If I make it straighter past a certain point and then join it to the other walls, it does hugely weird things both to itself and the other walls!!!!
If I join it to the other walls and then try to make it straighter the same happens.
Can someone explain why it does this please? Better still can someone explain how I can work around it?
I'm running Windows 7 64 Bit Professional, Visio 2010 Professional
Apologies if this has been covered somewhere else.
Thanks in advance,
Andy.

[wapperdude]

Unfortunately, I only have V2007, but offer it as a reference point.  I built a simple room using 3 straight walls and 1 curved wall.  Then, used the yellow control to vary the curvature of the 4th wall.  Seems to work fine except when removing all curvature, i.e., making it a flat, straight wall.  Under that condition, the end points are wrong, i.e., they don't join together correctly.  Otherwise, the behavior is as expected.  Can even change the curvature from convex to concave...end points always well behaved, wall thickness is well behaved.  Turned snapping off so that I could go to very, very shallow curvature, and that was fine too.  So, for at least V2007, there does not seem to be a problem.

Wapperdude

[Paul Herber]

My thinking is that it's the grouping that is causing the problem. These shapes and the addin behind them are designed to work as they are, grouping might be creating a problem.

[wapperdude]

Could be Paul, I mis-read the original post, and thought the 3 straight walls were placed with no grouping.

Re-did this in V2007, grouping the 3 walls and then adding the curved wall.  That did introduce some issues.  The curved wall tended to snap and glue to the group selection box even though it looked like it was connecting to the walls.  Had to zoom in to verify this.  That does create mis-behavior.  As Paul indicates, the intended construction is without grouping.  If that's something that is necessary, I'd suggest putting all the walls in place and then group at the end.

Wapperdude

[fixit9660]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm not sure that I haven't already tried it un-grouped but I'll go back and re-try.
I'll let you know how it goes.
Andy.

[fixit9660]

Well I'd like to say Ungrouping the walls fixed it. I'd also like to say I know how to insert images into a post. As I don't I've attached the pictures in the next three posts,,,,,

[fixit9660]

and when I stretch the curved wall and connect it to the second straight wall.....

[fixit9660]

but it DOES work if I make the curved wall Radius large enough?

[wapperdude]

Well, that is definitely weird, and not normal.   

Probably easiest will be to make and attach a simple, Visio file with just the 3 straight walls and 1 curved with misbehavior.  That way we can look at the Visio file in detail.

But, looking at the attached pictures, there is something odd.  Where all of the walls butt together, there is a line showing.  That shouldn't be.  When two walls are properly joined, their connection becomes seamless.  None of the pictured walls exhibit that behavior.  It's almost like the underlying code isn't being triggered properly.  How did you start your drawing?  Did you begin by invoking one of floor plan templates?  These templates set all of the necessary parameters for full functionality, including the necessary stencils which contain all of the floor plan shapes.

Anyway, when the walls are butted together the connection point should turn red, and the pop-up hint ought to say Glue to Connection Point.  Many times it will say Glue to Geometry.  Unfortunately, that doesn't always produce proper behavior.  Then you either have to zoom in more closely to make sure connection points are glued, or / and set the snapping mode to show preference for connection points over geometry.

HTH
Wapperdude

[fixit9660]

Oh that is such a relief to hear you say that!!!
I started off using a blank Maps and Floor Plans Template. Oh, I wonder if that's where I've gone wrong? I started off using one blank Template for each design/building skill, i.e. Site Plan, Floor Plan, HVAC, Security, etc. I've just realised that I got tired of opening and closing all the different ones and created a Tab for each on the one Template (I'm trying to design a house I want to build), but I don't remember which Template it was. Would copying the details and plans created so far, off those Templates and only a single one, designed for a different building skill, have created the strange behaviour?
I've attached the file with minimal detail; I took the file I was using and deleted all the unwanted Tabs and detail so you should be getting the same file I'm trying to work with, albeit greatly trimmed.
Thanks for your help,
Andy.

[wapperdude]

Well, that's interesting!

First, none of the shapes are actually on a drawing page, they are shifted way north of the page.  But, that's not a behavioral problem and probably a residual effect of your making a simpler file.

But, many of the shapes do seem corrupted.  For example, the very left most floor plan is grouped, and then there's the floor plan just to the right of it.  Selecting either vertical wall causes the two endpoints to become visible, i.e., to yellow squares with dots in the center.  These do not match the visible wall outline.  Replacing these with new walls from the stencil brings back proper behavior.  Likewise, the curved wall piece is corrupted.  Replacing it restores expected behavior. 

Somehow, either from the grouping operation, or some other steps, the behavior of the walls has been corrupted.  You will have to replace the corrupted shapes.  However, when I group a non-corrupted set of walls, I cannot replicate the behavior your "bad" walls exhibit.  Not really sure what caused this strange behavior.

Wapperdude

[fixit9660]

Replace the corrupted shapes!?! I haven't done much to these other than to drag them from the side, and group them, then try to attached the curved wall. Is it because I'm trying to do it on a non-room Templete do you think?
I don't know why the rooms were way off the page either; here they're in the middle.

How to I replace corrupted shapes please?

Thanks

Andy.

[wapperdude]

By replacing the corrupted shapes, I mean wall shapes.  As far as corrupted goes, I mean those that when you select a wall, the indicated end points, the yellow squares, do not coincide with the visible wall outline.  The corruption might be from using a non-room template.  By replacing, I mean merely delete the offending wall shape and drag a new shape from the stencil.  That seemed to work for the provided file that I downloaded.  But, you need to do it for every corrupted wall shape, straight and curved.  Another indication that the shapes are corrupt is that when two walls are merged together, the area of joining should be seemless.  If not then at least one of the two shapes (could be both) is corrupted.

As a side note, if you're interested in the interior dimension, then, when you place the walls, the indicated snap/glue points should be on the inside wall face.  If you want exterior dimension, then place walls such that snap / glue is on the outer side of the wall.  Mixing these will give you wall dimensions that are either interior or exterior depending on the particular wall selected.  That tends to be confusing and throws the sizing off as Visio will either stretch or shrink the wall when it butts to another. 

Wapperdude

[fixit9660]

Thanks for that wapperdude. I had visions of having to reinstall something

I'll give it all a go, including onto a Building page and see how it goes.

Many thanks

Andy.