Collecting commonly-used stencils

[John Oliver]

I've downloaded a bunch of VSS files to get stencils for equipment I
commonly use... Dell servers, Dell switches, HP servers, IBM servers,
Sun servers, Cisco switches, Cisco routers, Cisco security appliances,
etc. Right now, I'm having to find and double-click on each VSS file to
find and drag out the one item I want to use. What I'd like to do is,
create my own VSS file and drag into it the items I use. Then, in
Visio, I'd like to be able to click a button or something to open that
file, rather than open Explorer, navigate to the folder that contains
the VSS, and double-click on it.

 

[WapperDude]

I'd start by using Visio help and search for custom stencil. One of the
topics is creating a new stencil (custom) based on an existing one. There
are other related topics that will also help.

Basically, you need to open a new stencil <toolbar> shapes icon, scroll to
bottom, select new stencil. It'll be easier if you do not dock this stencil.
Then, open your existing stencils, and drag the shapes that you want onto
your new stencil. Then, save the new stencil. This new stencil will showup
under <toolbar> shapes > My Shapes. If you want this to always come up, then
save your setup as a template.

Additionally, you can have direct assess to all of these downloaded stencils
in Visio, if you haven't already done so. Either move them to My Documents >
My Shapes, or, if they are all in one directory, you can go to Visio toolbar

Tools > Options > Advanced tab > click file path, and then enter the file

path for stencils.

HTH
Wapperdude

 

[James W.]

I've downloaded a bunch of VSS files to get stencils for equipment I
commonly use... Dell servers, Dell switches, HP servers, IBM servers,
Sun servers, Cisco switches, Cisco routers, Cisco security appliances,
etc. Right now, I'm having to find and double-click on each VSS file to
find and drag out the one item I want to use. What I'd like to do is,
create my own VSS file and drag into it the items I use. Then, in
Visio, I'd like to be able to click a button or something to open that
file, rather than open Explorer, navigate to the folder that contains
the VSS, and double-click on it.

There was no mention of the actual version you are using in this case I am using Visio 2007. You should have the ability to create new stencils within Visio. Select the stencil icon from the Visio’s toolbar, scroll down to select new stencil. Once the stencil opens, it should be blank void of shapes. At this point you can open the other stencils, which contain the desired shapes, select and drop them on the new stencil. Once you have completed this task and the stencil contains the proper shapes save it using the right mouse click and then select save as. Give the stencil a name, by default it will attempt to save under your profile, documents, my shapes folder with a vss extension. After this has been completed, you can now open the stencil by selecting the stencil icon > Open Stencil and select the desired stencil. In order to open, the stencil with one click will require some code to call the stencil from its location. If Visio 2007 is being used, use the macro recorder to

determine the code structure. For more information on how to use the Macro recorder, check the help files.