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You are here: Home / Features / Featured Articles / Oblique Connectors For Your 3D Diagrams

Oblique Connectors For Your 3D Diagrams

October 29, 2007 By Visio Guy 43 Comments

Read Full ArticleVisio network shapes have gone “3D”, but Visio connectors have decidedly not…

…unless you’re the guys behind the creation of the Zeus ZXTM Appliance Network Stencil. Several readers have noticed the cool isometric connectors that the KnowledgeHub guys used in their sample illustration, and want to get ‘hold of ’em.

We’re not sure where the KH folks got those connectors, but a little light bulb went * bing * inside our Visio Guy heads as we remembered yet another an unfinished prototype gathering dust on our HD. Ah yes, Oblique Connector.vsd, from long, long ago…

Yes, we dug-up and dusted-off the old prototype and produced a finished shape that lets you connect 3D, or isometric looking shapes with connectors that match. In today’s download, you’ll find this master:

ObliqueConn_MasterIcon

Which lets you create illustrations that look like this:

ObliqueConn_Sample

If you right-click on the connector, you’ll see a BUNCH of options:

ObliqueConn_Menu

Let’s briefly go over the menu items and other features of the shape:

Flip

The first menu item is Flip Direction. This changes the “S” orientation of the connector by 90 degrees (in our projected world…) In the illustration above, you can see the light-gray line represents what the black line would look like after this flipping operation.

Reset Bend Position

This sends the bend back to the middle position. You can reposition the bend by tugging on the little yellow control handle in the middle of the shape. But if you want to get a bunch of connectors to line up, like they are in the first illustration up top, it’s best to get the bend back to the default position. Note, if the bend is already there, then this menu item will be disabled.

Z-order

The items are self-explanatory, but the point is this: it’s easier to send the connector behind the computer, then to try to adjust connection points so that they’re just on the edge where the connector meets the shape.

Angle and Slope

You can change the perspective of the connector by choosing one of the slope settings. 30°, 45° and 60° settings are probably pretty clear – the connector lines will follow those angles. For the other “ratio” settings, the numbers simply indicate how much the connector lines run horizontally versus how much they rise vertically. So the 1:3 setting means the connector goes over three units and up one unit. The 1:1 setting is the same as 45°.

Visio’s snazzy 3D network shapes appear to be drawn as true isometric projections. That means their lines run at 30° from the horizontal. So our connector should technically use the 30° setting to match the angles of the network shapes. We’ve found, however, that the setting 1:2 is very close to 30° (it’s 26.6°…) works very well, because it’s easier to position the network shapes in 1:2 increments by snapping to the grid.

Edit via Custom Properties / Shape Data

You can also change the flip direction and the slope of the connector via Custom Properties (Shape Data). Just show the property-editing window via View > Shape Data Window (in Visio 2007) or View > Custom Properties Window (in Visio 2003) and you’ll see the fields just waiting for your input!

Dynamic Glue

Normally, as you connect shapes in Visio, you get that neat-o red rectangle that indicates you’re making a dynamically glued connection. With dynamic glue, a connector will automatically wander around the perimeter of a shape, finding the best place to which to connect.

We tried to implement this feature on the Oblique connector shape, but it just wouldn’t work. It seems that Visio’s Dynamic connector gets lots of special treatment from the engine. This treatment had the effect of hammering our carefully crafted ShapeSheet formulas and making the connector do scary things.

Download “Oblique Connectors (Visio 2007 version)”

s!Aj0wJuswNyXlhwV5v8gHAwu2Frnx – Downloaded 21992 times – 103.00 B
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Filed Under: Featured Articles, Network, Shapes Tagged With: Network, Right-Click Actions, Visio Connectors, Visio SmartShapes

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Mark Nelson (MS) says

    November 2, 2007 at 6:02 am

    Good work, Chris!

  2. Mauricio Sougarret says

    November 12, 2007 at 10:58 pm

    Saved me hours of work, really, my kid thanks you for this ;), great work. Now a question, how can I build 3d objects in visio (or for visio)? I need to do some basic drowing in 3d and I didn´t find anything close to what I need in the the shape library.

    Mauricio

  3. Paul Curnock says

    November 23, 2007 at 12:05 pm

    Great work, thanks.

  4. thomas lee says

    February 3, 2008 at 11:39 pm

    Thanks for this – most helpful!!

  5. Visio Guy says

    February 5, 2008 at 5:48 pm

    Hey Guys,

    Thanks for the positive feedback. Glad the shapes helped you out!

    – Chris

  6. Brian says

    February 12, 2008 at 7:02 pm

    Do you know where I can find oblique Cisco shapes?

  7. Visio Guy says

    February 13, 2008 at 4:18 pm

    Hi Brian,

    I don’t know of any oblique Cisco shapes off-hand. Have you looked at Visio Cafe? or maybe even the Cisco site itself? Probably, you’ll mostly find shapes that are straight-on elevation views, but good luck!

    – Chris

  8. Gra says

    February 26, 2008 at 12:03 am

    Brian — As Visio Guy said, check out Visio Cafe. Go to the VSDfx section…there you’ll find Cisco 3D images. It’s only a handfull of models at this point, but it’s a start!

  9. Trevor says

    March 4, 2008 at 9:01 am

    Shameless plug time… we also have some Isometric connector shapes in the VSD Grafx collection on the Visio Cafe that are located in the VSDfx-Essentials-3D.vss stencil. We threw in some Isometric arrows as well. Keep your eyes open for more stuff Isometric shapes in the future – we’ve just gotten started!

    Trevor Foster
    VSD Grafx Inc.

  10. Visio Guy says

    March 4, 2008 at 6:03 pm

    Hey Trevor,

    No shame about plugging! You’ve got some real cool stuff on Visio Cafe, and should be proud of it.

    I really like the Isometric Arrows you guys posted!

    – Chris

  11. Jason says

    July 28, 2008 at 7:58 pm

    Is there any way to make these connectors ‘jump’ over eachother like the default connector objects in Visio?

  12. Visio Guy says

    July 28, 2008 at 9:18 pm

    Hi Jason,

    Good idea.

    These connectors are hand-built and don’t use the built-in auto-routing capabilities that Visio has. Unfortunately, line jumps are part of that functionality. I tried implementing some of those features in these connectors, but Visio ends up taking over the shape and blasting the isometric/oblique geometry.

    So it doesn’t work.

    A work-around is to create a custom line pattern that has a black line surrounded by white on both sides. This has the effect of making crossing lines look like they have a gap-style line jump.

    For more on custom patterns, see our “custom pattern” tagged articles:

    http://www.visguy.com/tag/custom-patterns/

    – Chris

  13. Marcel says

    August 4, 2008 at 4:42 pm

    Thank you!!!
    It’s exactly what was looking for.
    Thanks again for saving me hours of time

  14. Line jumping says

    October 29, 2008 at 1:04 am

    Can anyone explain the difference between line jumping and not line jumping. Does it make a difference, is there an actual rule.

  15. Dean Jorges says

    May 13, 2009 at 6:14 pm

    I get this error, I became a memember of the forums… Is there another membership I need, if so, how can I be considered?

    You must be logged in to download this file.

    Thank You
    Dean

  16. Visio Guy says

    May 13, 2009 at 7:18 pm

    Hi Dean,

    The accounts for the forum and Visio Guy site are not the same. The last time I checked into this, the bridge between WordPress and the SMF forum software didn’t seem up to snuff.

    The blog and forum plug-ins have come a long way since I’ve started this though, so I should try to get to this in the near future.

    Sorry for the extra run-around,

    – Chris

  17. Alaa Al-Ankar says

    June 23, 2009 at 9:02 pm

    Good Site and content.

    Keep up the good work.

  18. Knifey says

    September 20, 2009 at 1:40 pm

    They look awesome, but I can’t download them. It says ‘You must be logged in to download this file’.

  19. Visio Guy says

    September 20, 2009 at 5:24 pm

    Hi Knifey,

    I made some updates that removed the link for logging-in or registering. They are back again, or you can just register here

  20. Visiotech says

    January 26, 2010 at 2:46 am

    Your download link still requires login.

  21. Visio Guy says

    January 26, 2010 at 7:17 am

    Hi VT,

    Yes, you have to register to get some of the downloads on this site. The login screen contains a link to register as well.

  22. fbastarra says

    May 22, 2010 at 12:22 am

    I just downloaded the Oblique connectors and anxious to see how they work with the 3D shapes.
    I’ve been browsing for hours looking for 3D shapes of some specific telecom/network/buildings I need to use in my Telecom Diagrams like Radio Tower, Satellite Dish, Office Building, small hub or point of presence, stadium, and other landmark buildings.
    I already searched in the Visio Cafe (great place!) with no luck. I hope you can help me.

    Other problem I can’t seem to solve, I used first the demo Visio who had a very useful “measure” shape tool for floor drawings where it inmediately gave the measure of whichever element on scale. Now that I got the CD purchased that shape is gone. Any idea where to find it?

    Regards
    Fernando

  23. Mike says

    September 7, 2010 at 4:34 pm

    Can I edit existing dwgs with this? Do I have to open this file to start a dwg using this?

    Thanks

  24. nutropia says

    November 24, 2010 at 9:01 pm

    I have looked through all of the Isometric/Oblique posts on this site and others and I’m wondering if anyone has created a flowchart “decision” shape (diamond)? I’m aware of the Isometric shapes that Vojo has posted but I don’t seem to be able to manipulate/skew shapes such as the cube to look good as a diamond within an isometric layout. Any help would be appreciated.

  25. Jason says

    March 17, 2011 at 8:42 pm

    Is the VSDfx-Essentials-3D.vss still available on the Visio Cafe site? I only found an archived post but cannot find the stencil for the Isometric connector shapes.
    Good stuff by the way.

  26. giadzich says

    April 25, 2011 at 10:52 pm

    I could download the file many times but still unable to open it. I think the file has been corrupted. Please fix. Thanks.

  27. allanw says

    April 26, 2011 at 9:47 am

    I’m having problems opening the file after I download it as well.

    I’ve tried the VSDFX 3D Essentials from Visio Cafe, but I can’t flip the “D-Elbow Top” shape to become a “D-Elbow bottom” and I need one – I was hoping there might be something in the oblique connectors shapes but as I said, the file seems to be corrupted. Anybody got any other ideas?

    Thanks,

    Allan.

  28. Visio Guy says

    April 26, 2011 at 10:05 am

    Giadzich, the download is a .zip file. You have to unzip it and get the .vsd Visio file out.

  29. Yu Chai says

    March 20, 2012 at 7:44 am

    But how can I show the container as isometric too?

    Like this: Contoso Sample Network

  30. Visio Guy says

    April 12, 2012 at 11:25 am

    Hi Chai,

    I actually made an isometric shape to do just this, but never had time to polish it and publish it here.

    You could probably just draw an isometric rectangle using the Line Tool.

    You can also search this site for “isometric”. You might find some helpful advice in the results.

  31. qpham504 says

    February 17, 2013 at 3:46 am

    How do I add this to my toolbar to use? I’m trying to open the vsd file but its not coming up when I click new file.

  32. Visio Guy says

    February 17, 2013 at 9:29 pm

    Hi qpham504,

    This is a shape, not a tool, so it can’t really be added to the toolbar. The connector tool in Visio is a special case.

    You can add the “Oblique connector” master to your favorites stencil in My Shapes to make it more conveniently accessible.

  33. ponaboy says

    July 10, 2013 at 4:45 pm

    if i’m honest, i find having to shoehorn axonometric drawings into visio a real pain. without this connector, i would still be forced using Corel and Axxactamundo.

    actually, i STILL use them for axonometric layouts but given how visio is the de facto tool nowadays, it is a boon to have a legitimate right-sized connector now. why MS made the connectors so insane is beyond me!

    gracias!

  34. Rob Boucher Jr says

    January 10, 2015 at 11:32 pm

    Can this oblique connector be distributed with a free Visio stencil I produce? I was also thinking of modifying it so we have arrows ends with the proper perspective.

  35. Richard D. says

    January 20, 2015 at 4:30 pm

    Excellent feature. I can find this very helpful. I am wondering if you can use this for Vertical scenarios, opposed to horizontal layouts only. (Turn 90 degrees for up/down connectivity).

    Sincerely,
    Richard

  36. Visio Guy says

    February 3, 2015 at 4:12 pm

    Hi Richard,

    I don’t think it is set up to work “vertically” (I know what you mean). The angle options built-in to the shape are really for the horizontal world. Contact me if you’re in a jam and need some custom work.

  37. mickael says

    January 31, 2018 at 12:28 pm

    Hi richard, i cant download this oblique connectors for visio…
    Can you send me in email? thanks.

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