Create your own container

[maclarkson]

Is it possible to create your own container from scratch? I have a number of objects that I would like to convert into containers.

[Paul Herber]

Yes, quite simple.
If you add a container to a page and open the Drawing Explorer window (you will need to be in Developer mode) then open the shapesheet editor for this shape and you will see in contains a User-Defined section. This contains a cell called
msvStructureType
which has the value
"Container"
Add this same item to your shape and it will become a container.

[maclarkson]

Awesome thanks

[maclarkson]

Actually I have a couple of questions for you:

you created this beautiful piece of code a while back that would write to the connector the shapes the objects were connected to. I have some data that is connected to the objects from a an access database: i have a unique code called Prop.ObjectID on each object:

a) can you tell me how I can change the code so that it gets the objectID insted of the text. Also
b) is there anyway you know of to create one of these connectors automatically if I place one object inside of another.

Sub GetFlowchartConnections()
' Gets text from shapes connected at each end of every line on page
' Stores text in two shape data fields on each line

    Dim pg As Visio.Page
    Dim shp As Visio.Shape
    Dim cnxEndPoints As Visio.Connects
    Dim EP As Visio.Connect
    Dim shpFrom As Visio.Shape
    Dim shpTo As Visio.Shape
   
    For Each pg In ActiveDocument.Pages
        For Each shp In pg.Shapes
            Call InitFromTo(shp)
           
            ' BeginX only exists if shape is a line
            If shp.CellExists("BeginX", False) Then
                'Get connects collection for current shape
                Set cnxEndPoints = shp.Connects
               
                If cnxEndPoints.Count > 0 Then
                    For i = 1 To cnxEndPoints.Count
                        Set EP = cnxEndPoints(i)
                        If EP.FromPart = visBegin Then
                            ' Get shape this end is attached to
                            Set shpFrom = EP.ToSheet
                            ' Store attached shape's text
                            shp.CellsU("Prop.From").FormulaU = Chr(34) & shpFrom.Text & Chr(34)
                        Else
                            ' Get shape this end is attached to
                            Set shpTo = EP.ToSheet
                            ' Store attached shape's text
                            shp.CellsU("Prop.To").FormulaU = Chr(34) & shpTo.Text & Chr(34)
                        End If
                    Next
                End If
            End If
        Next
    Next

End Sub
Sub InitFromTo(ByRef Shape As Visio.Shape)
' Create Prop.From/To if they don't exist
' Set both fields to null

    If Not Shape.CellExistsU("Prop.From", False) Then
        Shape.AddNamedRow visSectionProp, "From", visdefault
    End If
    Shape.CellsU("Prop.From").FormulaU = ""
   
    If Not Shape.CellExistsU("Prop.To", False) Then
        Shape.AddNamedRow visSectionProp, "To", visdefault
    End If
    Shape.CellsU("Prop.To").FormulaU = ""

End Sub

[Paul Herber]

Not me. It doesn't belong in this thread anyway, could you repost it in the correct thread.
Thank you.