shape search in stencils

[Jan]

Already a number of years I'm using Visio Process
Engineering for making P&ID's. I have a problem with shape
search in stencils. In Visio 2003 professional, the shape
search does not return master shapes that have been made
with Visio 2002. Does someone have a work around?

Jan
The Netherlands

 

[Mark Nelson [MS]]

Each version of Visio only returns shapes specific to that version.
However, there are very few differences between the 2002 and 2003 Process
Engineering shapes. Is there a specific shape that you need from Visio
2002?

 

[Jan]

Mark,

Thanks for your quick reply. Rather disappointing to learn that each version
of Visio only returns shapes specific to that version. I'm working at the
engineering department of a big consulting office and we are designing plants
for water treatment (clients all over the world). Since Visio was introduced
for making P&ID's, we developed hundreds of master shapes. A vast number of
these masters are Process Engineering masters (with tag formats) and have
property sets (each 99 properties). We are planning to expand the use of
Process Engineering (replacing AutoCAD). Shape search is very helpful,
especially for new users within our organisation. It would be a big
disadvantage if shapes of earlier versions are not returned. That would mean
that each time a new Visio version is introduced, we have to rebuild our
masters shapes if we want to use shape search. That would require an immense
effort... I hope that you understand our problem and that you can help us
out. Is there a chance that this problem will be dealt with by Microsoft in
the near future?

Regards,

Jan

 

[Jan]

Mark,

Thanks for your quick reply. Rather disappointing to learn that each version
of Visio only returns shapes specific to that version. I'm working at the
engineering department of a big consulting office and we are designing plants
for water treatment (clients all over the world). Since Visio was introduced
for making P&ID's, we developed hundreds of master shapes. A vast number of
these masters are Process Engineering masters (with tag formats) and have
property sets (each 99 properties). We are planning to expand the use of
Process Engineering (replacing AutoCAD). Shape search is very helpful,
especially for new users within our organisation. It would be a big
disadvantage if shapes of earlier versions are not returned. That would mean
that each time a new Visio version is introduced, we have to rebuild our
masters shapes if we want to use shape search. That would require an immense
effort... I hope that you understand our problem and that you can help us
out. Is there a chance that this problem will be dealt with by Microsoft in
the near future?

Regards,

Jan

 

[Mark Nelson [MS]]

I'm not sure about how custom shapes work with Shape Search, but there
should be a version cell that you can change to tell Visio you work with
Visio 2003.

Thanks for describing your usage though. It really helps to know how people
work with Visio.