Visio Guy

Well, it's been a while since we offered an overdrawn Visio Network shape, like the Logitech VX Revolution Mouse Shape, the Thinkpad Network Shape. or the USB Stick Shape.

Since it's Easter Sunday, and things are slow around here, I was in the mood to create something pretty. And of all the new gadgets on the market, few are prettier than the sensational Apple iPhone and the Apple iPod Touch.

So for you Apple fans who still use PCs, and for you die-hard Windows fans who appreciate a bit of sarcasm, please enjoy the Apple iPhone Visio Network Shape.

<haha> And NO, there won't be a Mac Version of this shape... </haha>

Below is a view of the shape in all its glory. I was trying to be cool, like PowerPoint 2007 and create a neat SmartArt reflection-effect. Needless to say, this was WAY harder to do than I thought it would be, but like I said: it's a slow day.

Even importing the Visio object into PowerPoint and applying the SmartArt effect didn't really do what I wanted, so I ended up doing a lot of this by hand, like a...um...graphic artist...

You can leave comments at the end of this article on how Cool this is, and "oh my God!", etc.

Unfortunately, that spiffy reflection doesn't come with the download. More things to leave comments about...

Features

The shape behaves like a standard Visio Network Shape. It has text that can be repositioned by a control handle. It has a connection point at its center. It has the standard data fields that you find on Visio network shapes, behaves well with the Visio Legend shapes, and behaves well with Themes.

You should be able to add it to your Favorites stencil (File > Shapes > My Shapes > Favorites) and be diagramming your department's cell-phone network in no time!

Shape Data Fields

The shape has all of the Shape Data (Custom Property) fields that you expect from Visio network shapes:

1. AssetNumber
2. AdminInterface
3. Building
4. CommunityString
5. CPU
6. HardDriveSize
7. IPAddress
8. Location
9. NumberofPorts
10. MACAddress
11. Manufacturer
12. Memory
13. NetworkDescription
14. NetworkName
15. OperatingSystem
16. PartNumber
17. ProductDescription
18. ProductNumber
19. Room
20. SerialNumber
21. ShapeClass
22. ShapeType
23. SubnetMask
24. SubShapeType

Themes

You can see, the shape is designed to behave well with Visio 2007's new Themes features:

When creating "over-drawn" shapes, I like to at least make them as efficient as possible. That means getting rid of unnecessary grouping, and combining shapes with like-formatting into single shapes.

While I was checking for inefficiencies, I came up with the idea to show an exploded view of the shape-construction involved with today's download. Here's a pretty picture of the Apple iPhone shape's anatomy:

We hope you enjoy this addition to your Visio network shapes!

Download: Apple iPhone Shape.zip (136 KB)