drawing the conaing polygon across selected objects boundaries

[jd]

is there any API that can be used to do this
as slection object always has arectagle around the selected objects and not
a polygon

considering that BOUNDARY around many selectd object would be a polygon and
not a rectagle

 

[Chris [Visio MVP]]

I've often wondered the best way to do this myself. Some ideas:

1. Make use of the Union function under Shape > Operations. This does what
you want, but destroys your shapes. You need to copy them all somehow...

2. Find an algorithm somewhere from some smart math-guys and adapt it.

3. Check out the methods: Points and PointsAndDerivatives, which allow you
to get vertices and curves from a shape quickly and/or approximately. More
info in the Visio Developer's help. It's just a lead -- I haven't
investigated fully.

--
Hope this helps,

Chris Roth
Visio MVP
http://www.wanderkind.com/visio

Go Team USA!
http://www.wanderkind.com/usa

 

[David P (Visio MVP)]

Infact, the NoAlignBox and NoObjHandles can be set to TRUE in the ShapeSheet.
This will supress the rectangles, which just leaves you with an outline to
trace ...

 

[jd]

thanks cris
i created my own algorithm , i could have used some graphical adjecency
matrix based algos but i created my own stuff , i m curretnly testing it and
will SEND IT 2 YOU to enjoy it
thanks again

 

[Mark Nelson [MS]]

If you are looking for a programmatic way to do this check out these two
methods:

Selection.BoundingBox returns an upright rectangle that tightly encloses the
shapes in the selection.

Selection.DrawRegion returns a new shape with geometry that matches the
outermost geometries of the shapes in the selection.

--
Mark Nelson
Office Graphics - Visio
Microsoft Corporation

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.