plezz help

I just fired up a Virtual PC with Visio 2007 on it. I had no problem changing the width of vertical swimlane bands using the shape handles or the ShapeSheet. Not sure where your problem lies…

When you change formatting using the user interface, Visio sets the LineColor, FillForegnd, Fillbkgnd, etc. ShapeSheet cells for every shape that is selected, and every subshape within those shapes.

When you set, say, the LineColor cell for a grouped shape, the subshapes do not get this change. You have to create a reference from every subshape up to the group, and you should probably lock those formulas using GUARD.

So, say your group is Sheet.13 (see: http://www.visguy.com/2009/07/15/whats-my-shapes-id/ for more on shape ids), then you would need formulas like this, for example:

Group’s LineColor = Prop.UserChosenColor
Subshape 1′s LineColor = GUARD(Sheet.13!LineColor)
Subshape 2′s LineColor = GUARD(Sheet.13!LineColor)
Subshape 3′s LineColor = GUARD(Sheet.13!LineColor)

etc.

I want to resize the width for a functional band (vertical swimlane flowchart). The shape is unlocked, the layer is unlocked, unfortunately seems this dimension has a minimum limit. Every time I’m trying to narrow this band, it snaps back to the limit width… Must change some user-defined cells in ShapeSheet windows ?…seems you need to be a scientist to change this sheet…
Is it a limit of Visio 2007 ?!!!.

Thanks,
TN

It’s possible that your shape is a group and that the subshapes within the group are not referring to the group’s FillPattern cell.

When you use the UI to apply a fill pattern, Visio blasts all the subshapes within the group with the new pattern. But when you set the FillPattern ShapeSheet cell’s formula, the subshapes know nothing about this. You have to set up references to the group.

So say your shape has an ID of 5. The subshapes need to have the formula:

FillPattern = Sheet.5!FillPattern
FillPattern = GUARD(Sheet.5!FillPattern)

Use GUARD if you don’t want UI pattern-application to affect the subshapes.

I would like to change the FillPattern according the the value of a Custom (or standard) Shape Property. I used an If statement in the FillPattern field in the Fill Format window, but the Shape does not change. When I display the Fill Window, the new value is there, but the Shape has not changed. Any ideas how to fix this?

Thanx
Corne

I highly doubt it. I don’t think that any custom right-click actions (that you create yourself in the ShapeSheet)show up in the viewer.

Similar to a Kumar who posted a question on March 3 (don’t see any response to his query), I am having a similar problem changing the line color of a shape that is made of group of shapes. I have a custom property that I am using in my logic for LineColor in the shapesheet to determine what LineColor to set the shape to. When I change the custom property of shape and right-click to see what the Line Color has been set to, it is exactly as the logic directs but the shape itself shows no such visible change to correspond to the line color setting. Any help on this?

Thanks,

Les

Yeah, the Data Graphics are assigned to the “Data Graphics” layer by default, as far as I can see. You’d have to re-assign the data graphic to have the same layer as it’s owning shape.

I don’t recall any options that do this automatically. If your drawing/solution involves any code, you could write a routine to do this for you automatically.

Kind of a pain, though…

- Chris

Thanks and great site. Sorry for my english

Rafa

Try this instead:

=SETF(GETREF(Layers.Visible[2]),NOT(Layers.Visible[2]))

it’s better to use the GETREF wrapper instead of quotes.

Great resource, thanks for posting.
I got the same problem that Alan above it seems, trying to use your formula only gave “formula error” no matter how I formatted it (I’m new to Visio actions…)

=SETF("Layers.Visible[2]",NOT(Layers.Visible[2]))

worked for me, though. Not sure what the GetRef is for, and the use of quotes gives me the creeps. But it works.
(Visio 2003 standard)