"trace" an electrical signal

[perry59]

In reference to the attached picture, I would like to be able to trace a signal from its origin to it's destination and get info on it's starting contact, through the wire to the intermediate plugs/sockets, through the other wire and finally the pin and signal on the destination unit. In this diagram it would be from the "ARINC 429 out 1" pin on the left unit, through the wires and disconnect and then to the "ARINC 429 in 1" pin on the right unit.
I know I can do this by selecting one of the wires (connectors) and examining it's connection list. I already have code that does just this courtesy of this site. But, I would prefer to do it by selecting one of the signal sources, it just seems more intuitive, plus it would make more sense in the context of my next question concerning when wires go off the page.
any Ideas, suggestions?
Thanks

[Nikolay]

I think without code it's not possible to "track through" shapes.
So you need to write some code to support that.

In schematics drawing tools, nets usually have some sort of identifier assigned to them, like "+5V" or something.
Some sort of marker.  In Visio, there are some options to add this sort of markup to shapes (lines): shape sheet cells, layers, shape text.

So the idea is to mark the shapes that belong to the same "net", and later on, when you select one "point" of the net,
get its marker and then select (or highlight) all shapes (wires) having the same marker.

Relatively easy "highlight" options may include: selection, changing color/width/fill pattern of the "wire".
I don't think animations like marquee make sense (they are hard with Visio)

As a generic thought, I think it would make sense to draw schematics using tools that are designed to do that.
For example, you do not suggest drawing this sort of diagram in Excel, right? Although in principle nothing can stop you from doing it
Looks like Visio has moved more towards "business" than "technical" diagram in the past decades...

[wapperdude]

Take a look at this...http://visguy.com/vgforum/index.php?topic=6314.msg25953#msg25953

[AndyW]

You would need to code to track through shapes and between pages.

I have done that for electrical single line diagrams, Visio is very good at giving you the connection information that you can use to build your own network topology model and then be able to trace the network. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euVTGipVoTU

[perry59]

I think without code it's not possible to "track through" shapes.
So you need to write some code to support that.

In schematics drawing tools, nets usually have some sort of identifier assigned to them, like "+5V" or something.
Some sort of marker.  In Visio, there are some options to add this sort of markup to shapes (lines): shape sheet cells, layers, shape text.

So the idea is to mark the shapes that belong to the same "net", and later on, when you select one "point" of the net,
get its marker and then select (or highlight) all shapes (wires) having the same marker.

Relatively easy "highlight" options may include: selection, changing color/width/fill pattern of the "wire".
I don't think animations like marquee make sense (they are hard with Visio)

As a generic thought, I think it would make sense to draw schematics using tools that are designed to do that.
For example, you do not suggest drawing this sort of diagram in Excel, right? Although in principle nothing can stop you from doing it
Looks like Visio has moved more towards "business" than "technical" diagram in the past decades...

Correct Nikolay, it will certainly require code. I do not need any highlighting, I just want to produce a simple piece of text that in this case would say something like "ARINC 429 out from pin 1 on connector P1 travels through wire "x" to pin 1 on on connector p1 through pin 1 on connector j1 through wire "y" and ends at pin 4 ARINC 429 in".
I have some code which does something quite like that, but produces a list of wires (connectors) and what they are connected to.
I want our engineers to be able to right click on a SIGNAL (not a wire) and say something like "show me all the places this signal goes".
the signal shape has connection points but I see nothing in the shape sheet that tells me if these connection points have something attached to them (I do see this in the connector shape though)

[perry59]

Take a look at this...http://visguy.com/vgforum/index.php?topic=6314.msg25953#msg25953

Thanks Wapper!
I haven't had a chance to really dig into the code yet, but it has strong similarities to the code I mentioned in my initial post.
It is VERY close to what I want to do, but not quite. I want to start by picking the "signal"shape and following it to the final destination. Perhaps that is not possible.

[perry59]

You would need to code to track through shapes and between pages.

I have done that for electrical single line diagrams, Visio is very good at giving you the connection information that you can use to build your own network topology model and then be able to trace the network. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euVTGipVoTU

yes, eventually I want to track signals between different pages, but that is a whole new can of worms I'll open later!

[wapperdude]

The 1st link provides detailed documentation wrt to all circuit connectivity on a page.

The following link let's you select two shapes, and you can then choose several options to highlight the connectivity between these:
http://visguy.com/vgforum/index.php?topic=6373.msg26266#msg26266

This link, also highlights, but you may select either a shape or a connector, and then see everything connected to it:
http://visguy.com/vgforum/index.php?topic=8702.msg38020#msg38020

This link might be closer...does highlight and creates a list:
http://visguy.com/vgforum/index.php?topic=5840.msg23425#msg23425

The above links are just a portion of what's available on the forum.

[Surrogate]

Few years ago i shared my solution for create table of connections
http://visguy.com/vgforum/index.php?topic=4615.msg18087#msg18087

[perry59]

The 1st link provides detailed documentation wrt to all circuit connectivity on a page.

The following link let's you select two shapes, and you can then choose several options to highlight the connectivity between these:
http://visguy.com/vgforum/index.php?topic=6373.msg26266#msg26266

This link, also highlights, but you may select either a shape or a connector, and then see everything connected to it:
http://visguy.com/vgforum/index.php?topic=8702.msg38020#msg38020

This link might be closer...does highlight and creates a list:
http://visguy.com/vgforum/index.php?topic=5840.msg23425#msg23425

The above links are just a portion of what's available on the forum.

BINGO!
the second one showed me what I needed to see. The "gluedshapes" function was the key, it did exactly what I needed. The info derived is not in the shapesheet, where I was looking. Unfortunately it is not available in visio 2007 which I still use a lot, but most of my co workers are on visio 2016 where it works fine.
I've attached the drawing and added a second sheet with my typical work shapes and if you pick one of the "signal" shapes and run the macro it puts out a simple message tracing from start to finish. Exactly what I wanted!
Just need to spruce up the code and add error checking.

THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!