How to edit a Visio shape?

[blmuzzy]

the current shape, "patch panel.52" is 2U high, and has 2 rows of ports
depicted. I want one 1U high with 1 row of ports. When I "open the shape" I
get the constituent sub shapes which are all 2 rows of various shapes &
colors. I appear to only be able to delete whole sub shapes vs cut them
down. Any suggestions?

 

[John Marshall, MVP]

Can you provide more details of how you want to change the shape and what
stencil the shape comes from?

Since this is a grouped shape, you should NOT try to ungroup it. (Usually
after a set of shapes are grouped, extra features are added to the group
that will be lost if you ungroup the shapes)

John... Visio MVP

Need stencils or ideas? http://www.mvps.org/visio/3rdparty.htm
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[blmuzzy]

I found it by searching for "panel", and previously for "network". The
latter returns many more hits.

The shape is grouped and I clicked Edit->open "patch panel", which did
appear to ungroup it.

The shape can be enlarged but the number and size of the "patches" remains
constant - 2 rows of them. I want the shape to be 1/2 the current height
with only 1 row of patches.

I'll check the 3rd party source you mentioned, too, thanks!

 

[John Marshall, MVP]

That is the Rack Mounted Equipment stencil.

The Edit -> Open "patch panel" is the right way to go. It does not ungroup
the shape, but it does open it up to examine the components.

My prefered way is to click on View -> Drawing Explorer Window. In the
Explorer Window click on Master to expand the folder and then right click on
the shape and chose Edit Master Shape. This will open a window similar to
the open "patch panel", but there will be a master explorer window on the
left. This gives you a better view of the component shapes and easier way to
select the different shapes.

In this case, the shape is made up of fourteen shapes. Four of the shapes
are used to group the other shapes. Each Visio shape can have one block of
text, one colour, one line format. So a multicoloured shape is based on
several shapes. This shape has a single shape for the white squares, but a
seperate geometry for each plug.

I'll continue hacking this shape apart and let you know what happens.

John... Visio MVP

Need stencils or ideas? http://www.mvps.org/visio/3rdparty.htm
Need VBA examples? http://www.mvps.org/visio/VBA.htm
Common Visio Questions http://www.mvps.org/visio/common_questions.htm
Visio Wishlist http://www.mvps.org/visio/wish_list.htm

 

[John Marshall, MVP]

It's not an easy one to work with. To change to a single row, you have to
delete some of the geometry shapes in several of the groups and play with
the formulas in the main section. There are formulas that restrict the shape
hieght to a min of 2Units. You can hard code the hieght or try and determine
how the formulas work in the Custom Properties.

John... Visio MVP

Need stencils or ideas? http://www.mvps.org/visio/3rdparty.htm
Need VBA examples? http://www.mvps.org/visio/VBA.htm
Common Visio Questions http://www.mvps.org/visio/common_questions.htm
Visio Wishlist http://www.mvps.org/visio/wish_list.htm

 

[Al Edlund]

you might consider opening the custom properties and changing the units to 1
al

 

[Al Edlund]

open the custom properties and change the units from 2 to 1
al

 

[John Marshall, MVP]

Al, unfortunately, that is not an option with this shape.

John... Visio MVP

Need stencils or ideas? http://www.mvps.org/visio/3rdparty.htm
Need VBA examples? http://www.mvps.org/visio/VBA.htm
Common Visio Questions http://www.mvps.org/visio/common_questions.htm
Visio Wishlist http://www.mvps.org/visio/wish_list.htm