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Rack Unit Dimension Line

April 1, 2007 By Visio Guy 22 Comments

Many many years ago, when I worked at Visio Corporation, one of my projects was to create the dimension line shapes that you can still find to this day under File > Shapes > Visio Extras > Dimensioning – Architectural or Engineering.

After all the sweat and tears that went in to creating them, I came to affectionately call them: My Babies. In fact, I still claim them as dependants every April 15th, and will soon be searching for a suitable university for them to attend.

So when a forum question appears regarding Visio’s dimension lines, I’m naturally all ears. Recently, someone made an inquiry in the Visio general newsgroup about a dimension line that could display Rack Units…

Audio Visual Components Shapes

December 15, 2006 By Visio Guy 15 Comments

Through the VGOBN (Visio Good Ol’ Boys Network) I recently received a finely-crafted Audio-Visual Shapes Visio stencil, full of shapes that you can use to layout your home theater wiring projects. The stencil is comprised of various terminal connectors, such as RCA Audio and RCA Video terminals, as well as various shapes for the back-plate and functional groups.

Many thanks to Tom Underhill for these shapes. Tom is a very smart engineer who used to work for Visio Corporation, and now does incredible things for Microsoft. You are welcome to send Tom praise and comments at “t-under-hill@g-mail.com” but remove all three of the hyphens first.

Visio Advent Calendar

December 1, 2006 By Visio Guy 4 Comments

December is here and Christmas is near! What better way to celebrate than with your very own Visio Advent Calendar!

I’ve created a Visio file that’s full of all sorts of goodies. Just open the file every day from now until December 25th and you’ll get a new visual, Visio treat!

Consumer Reports Rating Shape

November 22, 2006 By Visio Guy 4 Comments

Today’s post presents you with a Consumer Reports style ratings shape. The shape isÂ what is traditionally referred to as a multi-shape. It has five states that allow you to graphically represent the quality ofÂ a particular characteristic. Consumer Reports names the states: Excellent, Good, Average, Poor, or Unacceptable. In our shape you can configure the names to your liking.

Circular Multi-arrows

October 9, 2006 By Visio Guy 108 Comments

Visio users have been requesting the ability to add more than five stinking arrows to the Circular Arrow shape. This shape, which comes with Visio, is found in Charts and Graphs > Marketing Diagrams stencil.

This article’s accompanying download offers an improved version of this shape. It allows you to add up to 20 arrows, automatically color them, and choose from 3 arrowhead styles!

The Hidden World of Visio Shapes

September 5, 2006 By Visio Guy 86 Comments

So you’ve created beautiful graphics in Visio, and you know how to add phantasmal ShapeSheet smarts to your shapes, now its time for you to make it all disappear! I often get asked how to toggle the visibility of various elements of Visio drawings, and I usually offer up one of many solutions. But I don’t think that those many solutions have ever been cataloged in a single place. Until, of course, now…