Male/Female shapes in Visio

[Jake]

how do I create a male/female shape in Visio with the right-click option
(like the F/M 3-conductor 1 shape)?

Thanks in advance for any help,
Jake

 

[John Marshall, MVP]

That's quite a complex shape, far more complicated than it should be.

The general way for creating the functionality you are seeing it to control
the fill colour by the use of the value in a custom property. Since the
entire shape does not change fill colour, this should be a grouped shape
that contains at least two shapes, one is the basic plug shape and the other
is the shapes that change colour.

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

 

[Jake]

How do I create such a custom property? I don't see a fill color option
there. For the record, I'm using Visio 2003 SP1. I was able to see how
Microsoft gave the right click menu to change from male to female (Action
menu), but nothing on how to change the shape itself from the white fill to
black fill. I am trying to create a M/F XLR jack/plug which is 3 circular
pins in a larger circle at North, East, & West. If I group the pins together
(as that's what would be filled) do I do each individually, or all 3 as a
group within the group of the whole shape?

Thanks,