How can I add a Building Plan template to my Visio 2002 Standard?

[Looknsee]

I want to use Visio to sketch out a dream house floor plan. In previous
versions of Visio, I had a Building Plan template -- I could easily drag &
drop rooms & doorways & windows & furniture, but that template is missing
from Visio 2002 Standard. Is there any way to add just that template, or do
I have to go through the bother of upgrading to Visio 2003 Professional? I
don't want to upgrade since Visio 2007 is due out soon.

 

[Chris Roth [MVP]]

Hi Looknsee!

You can add templates to Visio using the "old-fashioned-annoying" method:

- Go to Tools > Options > Avanced Tab.
- Click the "File Paths..." button at the bottom
- Enter the path to your template in the Templates path. You can enter more
than one path by separating entries with ";".

Your template should show up in the File > New menu.

Keep in mind that the Building Plan stuff uses special "solution-code" to
put the walls together and perform other advanced functions. It may be that
these functions have changed from 2002 to 2003.

Also, your 2003 probably doesn't have the add-on utilities to handle the
shapes. In other words, you might not get any of the cool Building Plan
features. Your shapes will work, but they might not do anything fancy.

--
Hope this helps,

Chris Roth
Visio MVP

More Visio shapes, articles, development info and pure diagramming fun at:
www.wanderkind.com/visio