New Master Shapes Bounding Box

[Mik F]

Hi all,

I've created a new "Serch Server" shape based on the nice isometric
'Servers' stencil which, as you might guess, has a "Magnifying Glass"
icon to differentiate it from eg web server (globe icon) or email
server (envelope icon).

The problem I have is that all the 'official' shapes have the same
height and with (18mm x 25mm) despite elements of the shape exceeding
the size of this bounding box.

I've done all that I can think of, eg setting the page size to 18x25,
grouping and ungrouping all the shape elements and I've tried amending
some of the values in the ShapeSheet, checking my values against those
of the other masters I've pulled apart to see if I can work out how
this was achieved but I'm nowhere.

Can anyone advise what I should be doing here?

It's not a show stopper by any mark but it means if I select all
servers and resize that my shapes appear thinner than all the others

Thanks in advance,

Mik F

 

[John Marshall, MVP]

The shapes have a standardized bounding box to make it easier to align the
shapes.

John... Visio MVP

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[Mik F]

Hi John,

maybe I've misunderstood your answer or not explained my problem
clearly so please bear with me!

The supplied (with Visio 2003 Enterprise Architect at any rate) server
shapes have a standard height and width bounding box for alignment /
resize purposes.

Despite this, the actual shape sometime exceeds these dimensions eg
shadows and 'function' icons, so that the bounding box is 'inside' the
shape itself.

When I have attempted to create a custom version of this server shape
MY Bounding box conforms to that of the shape, so I guess my question
was 'how can I make the bounding box smaller than my custom shape /
master?'

Once I know how to do this I'm confident that the other queries, eg pin
points, will fall right into place.

Thanks,

Mik F

 

[Mark Nelson [MS]]

Hi Mik,

Configuring the bounding box is something easily done when you first create
a shape and harder to change once you make it. There is a Shapesheet cell
called LockCalcWH which locks the bounding box size of a shape. This is off
(0) by default. If you have a group and add subshapes, the group bounding
box will expand to include the subshapes - unless LockCalcWH is on (1).
Thus you can use this to add geometry outside the box.

Once you make the shape it is very hard to change because all your geometry
is defined in terms of this box. You have to edit your geometry formulas or
modify the vertices in the user interface to change things around.

--
Mark Nelson
Office Graphics - Visio
Microsoft Corporation

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Mik F]

Mark,

many thanks for this!

So in essence if I create a new empty shape, set the page dimensions
and place a transparent rectangle for the whole 25 x 18 size save it
and lock the bounding box, I should then be able to paste my 'actual'
shape over the top of it and then do the rest of the stuff like adding
custom properties. Is this correct?

Many thanks,

Mik F

 

[John Marshall, MVP]

Let me try again, To make it easier for the user to align the shapes to
guide lines or each other, all the shapes were created with a standardized
bounding box. Ever try stacking a bunch of boxes of different sizes? If they
were all the same size, it would be very easy to stack them in a pleasing to
the eye manner.

I would not recommend changing the bounding box.

John... Visio MVP

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