Network Rack -- Glue/Snap?

[Joseph Gruber]

Hi. I'm trying to create some shapes to use on a network rack diagram
in Visio 2003. I'm using the cabinet shape from the "Rack-mounted
Equipment" stencil list. The cabinet has connection points at every 1
U and most network shapes that are supplied with snap/glue to this
connection point at the bottom of the shape (e.g. a server will snap
at the bottom of the server). However, when making my custom shapes
they snap/glue at the middle of the shape and not the bottom. How do
I add/modify the shape so that it snaps at the bottom of the shape and
not the middle?

Thanks.

Joseph

 

[John Goldsmith]

Hello Joseph,

The rack equipment shapes are all 1D group shapes with their heights based
on multiples of a single U height. The 2D sub-shapes define their PinX/Y
positions in terms of half the width and height of the parent shape and you
need to make sure yours are the same.


For example, if you do the following:

1) Start a new diagram (File/New/Network/Rack Diagram)

2) Drag a single "Cable tray/spacer" shape onto the page from the Rack
Mounted Equipment stencil

3) Open the Drawing Explorer (View/Drawing Explorer Window) and right click
and show the shapesheet for DrawingX/Foreground Pages/Page-1/Shapes/"Cable
tray/spacer"/Shapes/Sheet.2

4) You can now see the PinY formula is: Sheet.1!Height*0.5

5) Change the PinY formula to Sheet.1!Height*0 and see the effect in the
shape

Hopefully you can see how the above works and implement the same behaviours
in your own shapes.

Best regards

John


John Goldsmith
www.visualSignals.co.uk

 

[Joseph Gruber]

Perfect -- thank you

Hello Joseph,

The rack equipment shapes are all 1D group shapes with their heights based
on multiples of a single U height. The 2D sub-shapes define their PinX/Y
positions in terms of half the width and height of the parent shape and you
need to make sure yours are the same.

For example, if you do the following:

1) Start a new diagram (File/New/Network/Rack Diagram)

2) Drag a single "Cable tray/spacer" shape onto the page from the Rack
Mounted Equipment stencil

3) Open the Drawing Explorer (View/Drawing Explorer Window) and right click
and show the shapesheet for DrawingX/Foreground Pages/Page-1/Shapes/"Cable
tray/spacer"/Shapes/Sheet.2

4) You can now see the PinY formula is: Sheet.1!Height*0.5

5) Change the PinY formula to Sheet.1!Height*0 and see the effect in the
shape

Hopefully you can see how the above works and implement the same behaviours
in your own shapes.

Best regards

John

John Goldsmithwww.visualSignals.co.uk