Why are some pictures deleted when I ungroup?

[Dasdi]

I want to ungroup a picture to remove the shaded background (as I have done
before). When I attempt to do so ... the picture disappears. Can someone
explain why this happens and how to oversome it?

 

[Chris [Visio MVP]]

Try zooming way out and see if the picture has wandered off to another part
of the document. It may have guarded formulas in it's ShapeSheet
definition, especially if the shape is part of Visio's included content.
Some of these shapes have special "smart" behavior that goes awry if users
try to ungroup them.

A simple method is to just go inside the group.

- Select the shape
- Choose Edit > Open "group name"
- You'll get a new window that is inside the group
- Select the shape with the shadow and de-apply it, or delete any shadow
shapes.
- You might have trouble doing this, as some shapes have their sub-shapes
locked/protected


A more compllicated work-around is to "dummify" the shape:

- Copy the shape: Ctrl + C
- Edit > Paste Special
- Choose Enhanced Metafile
- Youl'll get a new copy of the shape, but this is simple vector-data, and
no longer a smart shape
- Ungroup
- The picture shouldn't disappear.
- Choose the parts you want to keep or modify, delete the rest.
- Warning: when you paste-as-metafile, you might get two sets of shapes:
outlines and fills. You can delete
half of them, then just re-apply the line or fill styles to the remaining
shapes. No sense in having two of every shape...

 

[lmcisaac]

I have the same issue, ungrouping causes image to disappear, I have tried the
posted recommendations but the image still disappears when ungrouped. Is
there anything else I could try? I'm using Viso Pro, 2003, SP3.

 

[Paul Herber]

I have the same issue, ungrouping causes image to disappear, I have tried the
posted recommendations but the image still disappears when ungrouped. Is
there anything else I could try? I'm using Viso Pro, 2003, SP3.

Why are you wanting to ungroup a shape?

 

[lmcisaac]

This is a shape that was originally a bitmap that I used another program,
Adobe Illustrator CS3, to convert it to a vector image. Some sections of the
image need to be edited, either deleted or line colouring changed. While I
could do this in Illustrator, I find it much easier to do editing in Visio,
especially since the end goal of this exercise is to have a Visio file that
can be edited as needed. The image(s) being converted to vector are floor
plans and I expect to have to do this type of conversion and editing often in
the future.

 

[Paul Herber]

This is a shape that was originally a bitmap that I used another program,
Adobe Illustrator CS3, to convert it to a vector image. Some sections of the
image need to be edited, either deleted or line colouring changed. While I
could do this in Illustrator, I find it much easier to do editing in Visio,
especially since the end goal of this exercise is to have a Visio file that
can be edited as needed. The image(s) being converted to vector are floor
plans and I expect to have to do this type of conversion and editing often in
the future.

Ok, you still don't need to ungroup the shape though.
menu Format -> Behavior
Selection -> Members first
Group Data -> Behind member shapes

and you can use menu View -> Drawing Explorer Window
to see all the parts of the group shape.

 

[lmcisaac]

Yes I do, even when grouped Visio is not allowing me to select lines with the
grouped shape to edit, the way you usually can with a grouped shape.

 

[lmcisaac]

Paul,

When I try to change the settings you explained, thank you for the help by
the way, I can't make those changes.

I select the shape, go to Format - Behavior, and in this window everything
under the 'Group behavior' section is greyed out. I can't access the drop
down menus for 'Selection' or for 'Group data'

Any thoughts or recommendations?

 

[Paul Herber]

Yes I do, even when grouped Visio is not allowing me to select lines with the
grouped shape to edit, the way you usually can with a grouped shape.

email it to me.
paul (at) pherber (dot) com

 

[Paul Herber]

Yes I do, even when grouped Visio is not allowing me to select lines with the
grouped shape to edit, the way you usually can with a grouped shape.

Right, well it doesn't disappear or fall apart when I ungroup it here.
But, yes, ungroup here might be a bit misleading as it isn't a grouped
shape that is being ungrouped but a .emf file.
There are almost 64000 shapes in that image - it was a bit slow to
ungroup!
However, the final result is hardly worthwhile, the lines look a mess
in the image and after they've been imported, none of them are
straight. I'm wondering what you are trying to do that cannot be done
with the original file.

 

[lmcisaac]

Thank you again for your help.
Perhaps the issue is with my installation of Visio. I will upgrade my Visio
from 2003 to 2007 and try again.