2D-2D shape gluing anomaly

[Kari Yli-Kuha]

Hi,

my question concerns gluing two 2D shapes using outward and inward
connection points.

Env: MS Visio 2003 Pro

It seems to me that if the GlueFrom shape (the one with outward connpoint)
gets complex enough in terms of number of subshapes the outward
connpoint cannot be glued to an inward connpoint.
It seems that the limit is 24 shapes, i.e. if the grouped shape contains
more
than 24 shapes it cannot be glued.

The drawing at http://www.sqc.fi/~ylikuka/Visio/GlueAnomaly.vsd
contains one green shape with an inward connection point, and four
shapes with one outward connection point in each.
Two of these can be glued correctly, two cannot.
The total number of shapes in these shapes is 24 and 25, respectively.

Is there a workaround for this anomaly, other than simplifying the
shapes, or converting them into 1D shapes?

I've checked the Visio registry settings but could not find anything useful.
The same behaviour is present also in Visio 2007 BETA.

regards,
/C

 

[Chris Roth [MVP]]

Hi Kari,

Interesting! I've seen limitations with long chains of shapes glued
together, and with too many connections points, but this is a bit different.

One thing you can do to reduce the number of sub-shapes is to use the
combine feature. I assume the shapes in the .vsd were just for illustration,
but if you have sub-shapes that have like line and fill attributes, then you
can select them all and choose Shape > Operations > Combine. The separate
shapes become one. As this makes editing harder, you should keep a
"pre-combined" backup of the shape.

--
Hope this helps,

Chris Roth
Visio MVP

www.wanderkind.com/visio