Re-Used Line Formatting

[VisioForHVAC]

I use different combinations of line colors, weights, and dashes to differentiate different standard items that show up in my drawings. For example,

• Low Voltage Field Wire
• Line Voltage Field Wire
• BACnet MSTP
• BACnet IP
• Modbus TCP

Currently what I do is I have an example of each line in a stencil and then use the format painter to copy that formatting to the appropriate items in the drawing. I was wondering if anyone has a better solution for this though? I need to expand the line definitions that I have and wanted to verify there isn't an alternate path I should be considering.

Thank you

[wapperdude]

The stencil approach is good.  Not sure why you need format painter.  Just drag and drop from the stencil...everything ought to be already formatted correctly.

There is the possibility of creating a custom style, but I've not tried that, so can't give any advice.

[Yacine]

What you did and Wapperdude confirmed is actually the standard approach.

BUT, Visio can be tweaked in so many ways. The possibilities are endless.
The hardest part is actually to imagine the desired behavior and formulate it. The rest is just tedious consultation of Google or an AI.

Just to name some examples:
- The lines could be smartshapes and change their apparence based on one or the combination of several custom properties.
- The definitions can be stored globally at document or page level. The could also be stored in formatting styles.
- One could imagine having cascading styles - like css files.
- You could set up a dialog to manage the line styles
- You could go crazy, by letting the lines found out their own style, depending on what they are connected to.

It is really only getting the right mindset that every thing is customizable, you only need to formula your wish right. 

[VisioForHVAC]

I'm definitely intrigued by the idea of storing the definitions at the document or page level. Is there a post or document you could point me towards on how you would go about setting that up? I think I'll stick with the stencil for now but would love to better understand that solution.

If I tried to do that now I would create a user defined cell for each line. The issue I see is I would need a user cell for each line weight, color, and dash type. Right now I have 25 line types so that would end up being 75 user defined cells. Is there a way to add columns to a user defined cell?

Thank you

[wapperdude]

You should be able to simplify this.  Does each line type have specific color, weight, and style?  You could have a single shape, with a fixed list of Shapedata to select the type.  Then using the resulting type as an Index, there would be a Lookup table for each of the 3 characteristics.  initially setting up the fixed prop data list and index/tables a bit of work, but in the end you have a single smart shape.  The Forum has index and lookup examples.