Change size of a conveyor belt shape

[PauMei]

Hello,

is there a possibility to change the length of the integrated conveyor belt symbol in Visio 2013 without distortion or enlargement? I only want to "extrude" it in the X-dimension. I see that Visio is very powerful in the hands of a professional but I am only a student and do not need the full power of Visio. I want only to draw a simple flowchart with many conveyor belts.

Thanks!

Paul

[wapperdude]

By distorting, do you mean the height grows as you try to stretch the length?

I don't have that shape, nor V2013.  It sounds like the shape's aspect ratio may be locked.  Select and right click the shape, goto format>protection.  Check if the Lock Aspect Ratio is selected...de-select.

Your shape's length should stretch without affecting the height.

Wapperdude

[Yacine]

Hi Paul,
as you're only a student and don't need the full power of Visio, I won't try to explain what to do.
I rather send you 2 shapes of conveyors, one as 1D, the second as 2D shape.

Rgds,
Y.

[Nikolay]

What are you talking about?
You can stretch the "conveyor belt" symbol as long as you want it seems.. just drag it with the dot.., or?

[Yacine]

If you convert the standard conveyor to a 1D shape it loses its behavior and the circles at the ends stretch with the shape.
It was just a matter of adjusting this behavior via shapesheet.

[PauMei]

Hello,

@Yacine: Thank you for the shapes! They work great for me!

Because it was working so well my dear friends give me the "chance" to draw the other flowcharts too. By doing this I found two other shapes from Microsoft, the "bucket elevator" and the "scraper conveyor", who are making the same odd distortion problems. I think now that it could be useful to understand the fundamentals of the Shapesheet... 
Has someone an idea where to find a useful tutorial explaining how to create "smart" shapes?

Paul