Creating and linking your own custom shapes - D-Tools Forum

Head Tool · 09-10-2007, 08:25 PM

When I was at CEDIA last week I had a few people come up with specific questions on how to create and edit their own custom shapes and then add to a D-Tools/Visio stencil. There are a number of ways to accomplish this task depending on what you want the final outcome to be.

In the first case one of our clients wanted to draw their own image in Visio and then link it to a D-Tools product in the database and then store it in a stencil for use later. In the post SI5 versions this would work fine but for some reason the only fields we added in the SI5 version were Category, Component ID and Shadow ID. This worked fine for the project but when you tried to store the shape on a stencil there was no manufacturer and model information.

I am not sure whey this feature was taken out of SI5 but I just logged the bug and should have an answer shortly.

In the second case a customer wanted a custom SI5 shape but keep all of the cool custom properties intact and not start from scratch.

The solution outlined below should solve both issues until the bug is resolved in the next release. In this case I am going to use a generic Elevation Plain shape shape from the amplifier stencil but just about any of the SI5 shapes can be used.

1: Drop the elevation plain shape on to the Visio page from a stencil and pick any manufacturer/model

2: Open up the ShapeSheet by Window > Show ShapeSheet

3: Go to the Shape Data section and put double quotes ("") in the Prop.ComponentID, Prop.Manufacturer, Prop.Model, Prop.Type, Prop.Category, Prop.ShadowID. You now have a "clean slate" Master shape that can be used in any category/manufacturer/model in SI5

4: Make a copy (Ctrl D) of the shape and notice how you can pick any item in the database. Pick any item. Notice how it renames and changes?

5: Edit the new shape by selecting the shape and Edit > Open and a new window will open up that is one layer down in the shape sheet.

6: Fill that shape with whatever you want. If it is a non scale shape eliminate the Prop.Height, Width and Depth.

7: Close the window and save the shape in a Stencil. This shape will now be linked to that data

I have enclosed a blank slate stencil with a blank shape

I will report back as soon as I hear from the development team on the bug.

09-11-2007, 07:20 PM

Something is wrong with the zip file.

Head Tool · 09-11-2007, 08:15 PM

No, it is a F*&^ing IE problem. Either use Firefox or read this http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308090

Head Tool · 09-12-2007, 02:20 PM

BTW, this issue has been fixed and tested and will be in the next release of SI5

09-12-2007, 02:54 PM

great news!!!! because I was not able to duplicate, drag back into the stencil, and drag back in to the work area successfully. I think you told me in cedia that I need to make sure that some checkmark need to be checked with "manager"provleges or something.

BTW, you think there will also be a patch to fix it or we have to wait for SP3?

Head Tool · 09-12-2007, 03:17 PM

I am not sure when this fix will be released but you should be able to drag a shape into an open (undocked) stencil and get a dialog box that says this stencil is in read only mode, do you want to edit? Hit yes and the stencil should open for editing.