Line wieght and drawing scale

[qholmes]

Why when I change the drawing scale do my line weights change how they look?
Default drawing scale seems to be 25, if the layout requires 100 to fit on the page properly then all the lines in the shapes I have created now look too fat. If its set to 3/4 pt thickness. I would have thought that would look the same at all scale levels.... but... I guess that pertains to printed size as its a point size. So when you increase the scale the object gets smaller but the point size of the line would stay the same.. right I get it now..
So is there a smart way around that? Leave the drawing scale alone and just have Visio expand the page to fit?
Have the line weight scale with the page scale? I really do not want or have time to do a big modification to all my hundreds of objects.

I just tried setting the page to Let Visio expand the page as needed but it did not work? I have stuff off the side of the page?

Thanks for any help.
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[qholmes]

So it works of course if I put in a formula.. but I really don't want to do that for all these shapes.. unless there is some macro to do those changes.. even then.. its crazy.

I thought if I used mm instead of points but nope its the same.. it scales it. crazy.

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[wapperdude]

Which version of Visio?

[qholmes]

sorry  2010..
Although some of my team are switching to 2013.. not sure if that is a good thing or not.

Thanks

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[Yacine]

Scale your lines with the units you use (inches or millimeters).
Same applies to fonts.

[qholmes]

Well I tried that. I had the same thought so I changed my line weight to 0.25mm instead of a point size. But when I change the drawing scale it still scales up. It actually changes the number. So if I change my drawing scale to 100 from 25 then my line weight is now 1mm instead of 0.25.

we have decided to switch to Visio 2013.. I wonder if it handles these things differently.

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[wapperdude]

For reference, behavior in V2007:
Drew 4 1D shapes:  2 lines and 2 connectors.  1 connector & 1 line set to 1 pt width, and the other connector & line set to 0.001 in.

These were drawn on page with scale initially set to 1" = 1".  Update the page scale to be 1" = 10".  The two lines shapes set to0.001 in. remain unchanged, but the two shapes with 1 pt width did get fatter.  In all cases, the values shown in the shapesheet never changed.  That is, 1pt remained 1pt, and 0.001in remained 0.001in.

Apparently, V2010 has a new feature not included in V2007.   

Wapperdude

[qholmes]

Interesting..

That is why I am wondering if it is a setting you can change.. Let me replicate with a new drawing.

Right.. ok so the numbers do not change.. I was looking at the one where I had a formula to keep the size the same.

Attaching some pics of my results. They both get fatter. but the numbers don't change.

The skinny one is 1 pt and the fat one is 1 mm. I drew them at a scale of 1:25 and changed it to 1:100. So they both grew by 4x

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[wapperdude]

I can't be of any additional help, I stopped upgrading with V2007.

Wapperdude

[qholmes]

No worries. Thanks for trying.

Its the same with text..  But I use a formula for my text so it never changes. I did not realize the line weight would do the same thing or I would have done the same thing there. But I would have to edit thousands of objects now.. Might be the only way.

Maybe 2013 will be better.

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[qholmes]

Ok a new angle on this.. I just spent 3 hours with a colleague and we found some solutions to things but in Visio 2013 it seems to force a Theme on you if you use the default templates.

Is there any way to change the default templates to include No-Theme or change the default Theme?

Or can we add a new template to the default list that comes up with Visio 2013?

I know we can open a saved template file but its not as slick.. especially when you are dealing with 50 users who might do their own thing.. just want to make it as simple as possible.

Thanks

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[Yacine]

Just checked the scenario in V2013. The problem is worse than what you wrote.
My advice above was from experience with V2007.
In V2013 Visio is constantly switching the mm sizes of the lines to points. What the heck!!!
1mm gets automatically converted to 2.84 pt.

Possible workaround write a macro to correct the styles when the scale changes???

[qholmes]

I know its crazy.. but we tracked it down to a Theme issue.. there is an automatic theme applied to everything.

I make a shape in the stencil and when you drop it in.. everything is changed because a theme is applied..... so remove the theme and the problem in general gets better.

So we are working on the best way to keep people out of using a theme.

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[JuneTheSecond]

I think, just a thought.
Though I am not using Visio 2010 now, I don't remember such a problem.
There might be any other reason other than Visio versions.
There may be someone that are using Visio 2010.
If you post the drawing, someone could check your problem.

[qholmes]

Well now we are on 2013..

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