1

I would like to programmatically(C#) update/replace all shapes of a given visio flowchart(*.vsd). The diagram layout remain the same(all connections, coordinates etc. are the same), but the master-shapes should be different(from different stencil). Any examples, suggestions and ideas are highly appreciated.

Thanks for your suggestions! The source-diagram has many protected shapes that are grouped(+multiple subshapes), so I guess it will be better, if I take all the information for a given source-shape, and then drop a new master from the target-stencil and set these properties. Next, I would take the next Shape and do the same. I would create a new Visio document, since I’m not sure, whether the source Page-ShapeSheet is not customized someway. But I don't know how to do basic steps programmatically in C# e.g.

  • how to create new vsd file within C# (maybe application.Documents.AddEx(“”))
  • must I then open this document with application.Document.OpenEx, or the document is already open/active
  • must I create a new Page within this document -…

In this post: "save and close visio documents visual basic macro " similar steps explained, but in VBA and not in C#.

Community
  • 1
  • 1
user615993
  • 185
  • 3
  • 15

2 Answers2

2

I'd suggest just using Visio 2013, which has that function out of the box.

However, that's probably not going to work for you. I've taken two different routes in the past, depending on what differences there were between the original and the replacement shape.

One way to do this is, to copy as many attributes as you can between the shapes, and duplicate the glues and everything. So to do this, you just copy the width, height, pins, etc.., and then step through all the glues in the original shape, and move the glues to the new shape.

The other way, which is a bit cleaner, in my opinion, is wholesale copying all the geometry sections from the original into the destination shape. This makes it so you don't have to worry about glues and formatting and things, and are just copying over the graphics that make up the shape.

If you have a grouped shape with multiple subshapes, it's probably going to be easier to drop a new master out, but if it's just a simple graphic-type shape, copying the geometry is probably better.

One thing to be aware of with the "copy the geometries" method is, you have to make sure any user cells or controls which are precedent to any geometry cells in the new shape also exist in the original shape. Visio's Cell class tells you the precedents for a cell, so this is easy enough to do.

Hope that helps.

Jon Fournier
  • 4,299
  • 3
  • 33
  • 43
0

I think you can extract some information from these two links and play with it:

Visio shape - get X,Y position

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc160747.aspx

Community
  • 1
  • 1
Vince
  • 1,570
  • 3
  • 27
  • 48