"Drawing1 - Microsoft Visio (Not Reponding)"

[Bill F]

New Visio user here, using the 2010 version. My machine is a Lenovo T420 with 2591 MHz quad processor and 4096 MHz memory. I am using the Organization Chart Wizard to import excel data (to create an org chart). Sheet has 3 columns and 2,718 rows including headers. I need the org chart on a single sheet. The data is exclusively text.

Upon clicking Finish, a smaller window, also titled  Organization Chart Wizard, is superimposed on top of the first one. It progressively reads as follows: "Processing page 1... Dropping 2397 shapes on the page" then "Processing page 1... Updating shape information" and lastly "Processing page 1... Arranging shapes on the page." Green bars fill up the window's progress bar. The window's dark blue header then changes to dull blue and then the entire window turns white. Additionally, at that juncture I see at the top of my screen "Drawing1 - Microsoft Visio (Not Reponding)".

Okay, it's end-game so I then click the red X in the screen's upper RH corner to close the program, whereupon a window opens that confirms a mishap: "Microsoft Visio has encountered a problem and cannot exit. We are sorry for the inconvenience."

Do I have insufficient memory? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. I should mention that Visio will successfully generate org chart output for smaller sets of the same data.

[Paul Herber]

I'd guess that 2397 shapes on a page is pushing it a bit, especially with auto-layout. How long have you left it so far? I'd give it an hour, if you've given it an hour then can you leave it overnight?

This article might be of interest:
http://www.sandrila.co.uk/articles/visio-articles/visio-slowdown/

[Bill F]

Paul, I very much appreciate your prompt reply.

I will let Visio run during this evening as you have recommended, and periodically check it to see how long it takes. I'll let you know.

Would the time required for Visio to perform the subject org chart be reduced were the pc to have a substantially faster processor and/ior memory, or is the time related more to the Visio software?

[Paul Herber]

A faster processor and more memory will always help with operations like this.
This reminds me of a job I did many years ago for a car manufacturer. It was to compile diagnostics for a range of vehicles onto a CD-ROM, all the various files, text, images and code had to be copied into a suitable directory structure, checked for errors, then, if all was ok, written to a CD-ROM. Note that this was in the days when a CD-ROM writer cost a lot of money. As I was the external consultant I got the slowest PC in the department, a 386 machine, while pointy haired bosses had the new and just released Pentium machines.
If the build process completed it took 14 hours! Needless to say progress was rather slow, it took a couple of weeks for the powers that be to realise that this attitude was costing them a lot of money, so reluctantly I was assigned one of the new shiny Pentium machines, build now took 2 hours.