How do I take two drawings together for two separate layers?

[mlaw42]

I have a drawing of under data center floor for cooling system but want to
take this layer and combine with data center with servers on it. How do I
merge these two drawings?

 

[Al Edlund]

Unfortunately there is no automated way to merge what you are attempting.
You're going to have to do it manually.
Al

 

[John Goldsmith]

Hello M,

First off check if either document have existing layers (View/Layer
Properties) so you don't use the same layer names. Then here's an example
walkthrough:

1) With the servers document, if it has already got one add a new layer
named "Servers"

2) Select all the shapes on the page, right click and select Format/Layer...

3) Check the Servers layer and click ok

4) With your cooling sytem document repeat steps 1-3 using "Cooling System"
as the layer name

5) With the servers document, deselect all shapes and right click on the
page and select Copy Drawing

6) With the cooling system document click paste

You should now have two layers with their respective shapes in one document.
One thing that won't transfer is the connectors, which are likely to be the
same for both documents unless you're using something other than the dynamic
connector in the cooling document.

Anyway, let us know how you get on with the above.

Best regards

John


John Goldsmith
www.visualSignals.co.uk

 

[mlaw42]

John thank you for your help with layering, though I am confused what the
difference is by doing the layer process or just not adding my other drawing
ontop as a object?
Hence Insert/object then looking for name of drawing to add. Only
difference is if I understand the object keeps both as two seperate entities
though they are observed as one and layer combines the two? if you could
answer this for me I would appreciate it.

again thanks so much for your help.
Mary Lawson
(e-mail address removed)

 

[John Goldsmith]

Hello Mary,

That's an interesting approach. Although using Insert/object works, it
actually embeds another Visio object inside your original document (or a
linked OLE object). You can then convert it and retreive the original
shapes. This feels like a rather heavy weight approach. One caveat to that
is if you have multiple users and one person can work on a document and then
have the changes reflected in a 'master' document using link file.

The layers approach, which isn't really an alternative to Insert/O.., offers
a number of other benefits. There's the ability to change the
print/visibility/lock/color..... settings of all the shapes on a particular
layer using the Layer Properties dialog (see Format/Layer...), which might
give you the ability to provide different 'reports' to different audiences
from the same document (for example HVAC layer for building engineers and
Server connection for IT). You can also select shapes by layer using
Edit/Select by type/Layer, which enables you to make changes to shapes with
similar properties.

Take a look at these links below for a more detailed explaination of layers:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa217451(office.10).aspx

....also, by David Parker:
http://www.design-drawing.com/visio/LayVis.htm

Hope that helps.

Best regards

John


John Goldsmith
www.visualSignals.co.uk