Is there a way to select multiple points when using the pencil too

[Fernando Montenegro]

Hi!
I'm trying to edit one of the map shapes (Canada) that I got from the shapes
in Visio 2007.

First of all, it takes FOREVER for Visio to do any sort of shape operations
on it. I'm on a 2GB dual-core laptop and CPU just jumps to 100% on one core
and stays there for minutes at a time. Any suggestions are welcome...

But my question is: when using the pencil tool to fine-edit the shape, is
there a way to select multiple points for move/delete?

Thanks!

 

[larry]

try holding down the shift key

 

[Fernando Montenegro]

Thanks, it does work.

Is there a way to select multiple points by using an area select (point and
drag the cursor) as well?

PS: editing the Canada shape is virtualli impossible! I'm trying to just
narrow down to a few provinces and ANY shape operation (interesect, fragment,
....) as well as trying to use the Pencil tool is unusable. Any ideas?

Thanks!

 

[John Goldsmith]

Hello Fernado,

If you're just after provinces, you might want to check out a blog post at
VisGuy.com:

http://www.visguy.com/2006/09/22/map-of-north-america/

The Canada shape is made up of 199 geometry sections, each one of which
contains a polyline function. I had a go at exporting to svg and
re-importing to then use Chris's Polyline Shape Maker tool
(http://visguy.com/2006/11/27/polyline-shape-maker/) but it just takes the
22,000 odd geometry rows and returns 199 geometry sections again. Makes me
wonder whether there's a limit to the number of parameters the polyline
function can take (Chris?).

This reminds me that there used to be a Trivial Pursuit question:

"What country has the longest coast line?"

Answer - Canada.....but maybe you knew that already

Anyway, Chris's province shapes are much lighter (in terms of geometry
sections), but if you need the whole thing then you might be able to export
to svg, simplify the path in another vector application such as Illustrator
and then re-import back to Visio.

Hope that helps.

Best regards

John


John Goldsmith
www.visualSignals.typepad.co.uk
www.visualSignals.co.uk

 

[Fernando Montenegro]

Hi John!

Thanks for the info. I'll look into VisGuy's map. I had to use their world
map and Asia maps because of the whole China & India thing, so I'll take
another stab at the N.America map.

I'll explore the "explore SVG - massage - reimport" route if this doesn't
work.

Perhaps we can ask for high-res shapes for Canadian provinces in Visio 2008?
No meaningful border disputes that I know of...;-)

As for the coast of Canada, I did not know that. What did pop into my head
was one of the first articles on fractal geometry - Mandelbrot's 1967 "How
long is the coast of Britain?"[0] ...

Thanks!

[0] -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Lo...ical_Self-Similarity_and_Fractional_Dimension