Shape drag behaviour

[pjuser]

Hi,

I'm new to Visio but I have been given a task at work to create a custom stencil with custom shapes for use in our company. I have created the shapes in AutoCAD and imported without any problems.

The issue that I now have is that if I place a shape and then place another shape next to it (connected by their connection points), when I drag one of the shapes to re-position it, the lines within the shape move, drag, extend etc so that the shapes remain connected and it destroys the shape. Can I set the shape such that all the elements within it are locked?

Or is there any other way to achieve the same thing?

I've tried using the "guard" function in the shapesheet but I can't do that for every start and end point of every line in every shape.

[vojo]

if 2 shapes connected and you move one shape, the connection "stretches" to maintain connectivity.
If you want to move shapes around then place each shape then connect
(or copy connector, delete first, then connect 2 shapes with new connector)

The function is by design and actually pretty novel for this kind of tool

[wapperdude]

I wonder if you were to select each shape, one at a time, and do Join operation, if that might cause Visio to treat each shape as a singlular entity?

[pjuser]

Thanks for the quick replies.

Normally our shapes will be connected by Connector lines between their Connection Points so the fact that the shapes can be repositioned and stay connected is great. However, on the occasions where two shapes are placed together without a Connection line I want to make sure that dragging the shape doesn't cause the shape to fall apart.

I've attached an image to show what is happening.

[vojo]

your step 2 to 3 is more about grouping the 2 shapes so that if you move the group, the shape relation stays and if you want to change that, select child shape and move it as you please (the group entity stays)

Once you set the shapes, you can add connector (even add it to the group if you want)
(behavior of the group ==>add shape on drop......behavior of connector ==> add to group on drop)
adding connector or adding to group wont make much difference
(key difference is if you dont add to group, then you should add connection points to the child shapes and bind connector to that)

at that point, you have achieved 3.

[pjuser]

Thanks for the response. I should have been more clear that when I move to step 3, I want to ensure that the connection breaks rather than destroying the shape.

[vojo]

dont use connectors....just use simple lines