Windows7 and Visio 2010(Beta) - Page 2 - D-Tools Forum

David_Haddad · 03-18-2010, 10:42 PM

Hi Dave,

I've tried all sorts of testing and not been able to narrow it down. Your idea about starting with 2010 from scratch is one I do not think I have done and is a very good idea. However I have mainly wanted to fix it with existing drawings

.

One thing that I noticed yesterday that is really weird is that if I take a drawing that in Visio 2010 has several foreground pages set to various background pages, when I take the drawing and open it up on a computer running 2007, those foreground pages are set to completely different background pages!

I opened up 2007 yesterday and started working in it and it is amazing how quickly we adapt, as I was now moving slowly around 2007 because I have so thoroughly adapted to 2010. I like 2010 a lot better, but anyone who uses it needs to be prepared to at first waste hours looking for where new commands are, some of which are not only moved by totally renamed! And as usual MS spent a lot of time working on fluff and didn't fix core things people have asked for for year after year, like being able to paste an object from one page to anther and have it appear in the same place. But now I am ranting, and it's probably not reasonable for me to expect them to fix those things after 5+ years of new development and hundreds of millions of programming dollars spent upgrading Office

.

David

**Dave Kirn** · 03-18-2010, 10:53 PM

I figured you would have been complete in testing different options, but I had to ask.

I went down the same path with getting very frustrated with 2010 and not being able to find things. Now I have trouble when I am talking to a dealer that is on 2007 - it now seems that things in 2007 are in the wrong place!

Definately agree that anyone making the switch to allow alot of time to get familar with the new "ribbon" feature. I would actually suggest that you do this on your off time with a test project - otherwise you are going to want to go postal on Microsoft!

**Dave Kirn** · 03-18-2010, 10:57 PM

One more thing David

I also delt with the anger of the copy from one page to another page and it would paste in a different position. I am anal enough that I wanted to pages that showed the same drawing to have that drawing in the exact (and I mean exact) same place - I would spent way too much time switch between pages to get it perfect.

We now use the Background Page feature on all of our drawings. All floor plans are not created on Background Pages - one background page for each floor. Then on the floor plan page got to settings and select the background page that is for the floor that you want and now every page the floor plan will be on the same page. Also since it is on a background page the floor plan is automatically locked down so no chance of deleting something or moving something.

**Dave Kirn** · 03-18-2010, 10:59 PM

Also Background pages can have Background pages - that way you can have your title block on it without creating it on each Background page.

David_Haddad · 03-18-2010, 11:37 PM

Dave,

It sounds like we have come up with a lot of the same solutions. I also use background pages with other background pages. It's a good workaround to overcome many of Visio's weaknesses. Another weakness is that you cannot turn background layers off on a foreground page. That could come in very handy because you could have one master background page and then turn layers on and off on the foreground page. But again, being able to use a background page as a background for a background page helps to overcome that.

I am pretty convinced that most of the companies writing software applications don't actually have the people who write them use them! Or the need for some things which are uber obvious would be obvious to them. I can't even count the number of times I have seen a person ask if there is a way to copy things from one page to the same spot on another page so it just sort of amazes me that is still not possible.

David

**Dave Kirn** · 03-18-2010, 11:39 PM

It becomes fun when you need to have a workaround for a workaround

David_Haddad · 03-25-2010, 12:26 AM

Dave,

If you have not already done so, one of the things I have done is customize the ribbon so that the home ribbon contains every common command I use. Customizing toolbars/ribbons is one of those things that is a PITA, but boy does it ever pay off in time saved.

**Dave Kirn** · 03-25-2010, 12:32 AM

I have customized the ribbon - and yes it takes alot of time, especially trial and error what function does what.

I will give you one more thing that I did recently. When you add a custom area in the ribbon and add all your features - did you know that you can adjust where your custom section appears in the ribbon? I have not only moved my custom group farther to the left, but I have eleminated some of the other groups so that I can have more room. So basically I have created my own ribbon, just the way I like it with functions grouped the best for me.

Only thing now I need to find a way to copy or backup my custom settings so i can not only add them to another computer, but just in case I have computer issues I do not need to do this process all over again.

**Dave Kirn** · 03-25-2010, 12:41 AM

Have you had any issues recently with Visio files becoming corrupt and unable to save them?

Recently we have had 1 Visio file associated to D-Tools that open just fine, but if you try to save the file it generates an error message - Error 128 unable to save file. I tried to create another d-tools project and then open a new visio file and "import system" but I get the same error. Tried renaming the file, tryed moving the file to a different directory, tried saving the file to a XML drawing - all with no luck.

Finally added another visio file to the D-Tools project and then was able to copy items that were not associated to a d-tools product (example: rack drawings-we us custom stencils not associated to D-Tools products). I was able to highlight, copy and then paste to the new drawing. Had just started schematics so we lost some work, but not that much.

Just trying to find the reason this happened so we can keep it from happening again. Only seeing this with Visio 2010, but that is what 98% of our work is done on.

David_Haddad · 03-25-2010, 12:48 AM

I have not had any files do that. I have had files become corrupt due to Windows crashing as I was working on them, but nothing I did would repair them or allow them to open.