Hi all:

I am Peg from Canada, using Visio for a VBA project involving creation of nested shapes.  I would say I am at the end of the beginning stage of working with Visio which I usually use in Access.  I have used Visio a long long time ago but am returning.  And I am finding using VBA for macros in Visio quite a challenge.

I am thrilled to find this forum.

Ricky...too complicated to be particularly useful....mind as well build the drawing from simple line segments

Feel free to adjust the code. 

But honestly, the compliments in the old are far exaggerated.
Now the 20 years later, I would never use a tool to make a gap in a drawing. I would just select the shapes in question and move them away.
Very much more interesting would be to spread the positions of shapes within a selection to make room for additions. But this is a priori much more complex.

Hi, there was an older post (see below) regarding making space. I tried using this in a new drawing but the shapes will not move. However when I use the old vsd file in the post the shapes move. Now, since this is a few years old I assume it has to do with versions etc. and with Visio plan 2 / professional there is an Add-On to Move shapes. So that's good. Curious what methods exists for folks that have the basic version. I have plan 2 so I'm good but maybe there are other ways as well. Thx.

https://visguy.com/vgforum/index.php?topic=1833.msg11856#msg11856

Attached the revised MultiLane stencil (correct display of # of lanes and max. 50lanes). The creator of this was user Yacine, thanks again!

-The Interface shape could use a "face-lift" since the last lane doesn't line up with the triangle, if anyone can correct  it great, but no big deal.

-I added as well a shape called "Tubing bundle" just showing how tubing would be arranged on a rack
-I added as well the Breakline shape that was created by user Wapperdude (https://visguy.com/vgforum/index.php?topic=10685.msg50535#msg50535)

Rather than using PDF for import, try 1st saving as SVG or WMF.

Thank you Vojo for these shapes. They are not exactly what I need for now but could cbe useful later maybe. The stencil with MultiLanes shapes which Yacine created are what I'm looking into and there is some minor tweaking to do. Have you looked at these shapes called MultiLanes? Nice stuff you can enter numer of lanes and the distance (picth) between them and use control handles to move them around as needed. It also creates connection points at the end of each line. Yacine created several line runs (straight, L, U, Z, X, Interface).

The dimension line shapes have many options for units and precision. Since this shape is built on those, the article and effort concentrates on just the "dual mode" aspect.

I made this video years ago that (probably?) discusses how to fiddle with unit display. Basically, right-click and choose "Precision & Units...". There are several fields there for tweaking the shape. You can also push these settings to become the page's default settings.

Is anyone else having this issue or knows a way to solve this. We use D-Tools in conjunction with Visio to produce contruction drawings for AV systems.  D-Tools was stumped and Microsoft is also stumped. This is happening to my entire team. We look like we are producting sloppy work when we provide dimensioning details to others.

In Visio, we use the D-Tools built-in PDF bacground import tool to bring in plans from others and use them as backgrounds. This is the only way that I know of to get vector imgages in Visio to prevent pixelization. We will add dimension shapes to annotate length, height, etc. However, when we render the Visio drawing to PDF, the PDF background shifts during the render/printing process and it looks like the dimension shapes are no longer where they are supposed to be.

See attached screenshot for example, my Visio file is on the left and a screen shot of the exported PDF is on the right, the issue is inside the magenta rectangle.

What I have tried thus far to resolve with no improvement.

File -> Export -> PDF/XPS
File -> Print -> I've tried multiple PDF printers all with the same exact results and same exact offset which is roughly .25";

I removed the page margins for the printer
I tried enabling/disabling several compatibility options with no change.
I verified the page sizes match the document and the printer
I tried locking the layers
I tried shape protections on both the dimension shape and the PDF image
I tried grouping/ungrouping
I tried color and B/W
I tried 100% scaling and Fit 1 page.
I do see the issue BEFORE printing to PDF in the preview so it is happening somewhere between choosing to print and actually printing/exporting.

Nothing has had any impact on the issue.

Nice stuff. What about displaying imperial and metric units as an option? The master unit and then a slave unit in brackets?