Shape text auto rotate - D-Tools Forum

ekalpakoff · 07-05-2011, 04:18 PM

Does anyone know of a way to create a custom shape in Visio that the text field is always up and down even if you rotate the shape?

Victorc · 07-05-2011, 07:11 PM

The following steps will help you to keep your text angle as “0” while rotating your Visio shape.

Enter to the shapesheet of your custom Visio shape.
Then lookfor the Text Trasnsform section
And set the value of TxtAngle as –Angle

ekalpakoff · 07-05-2011, 08:48 PM

Vic,

Thanks for the info, however if I go into the shapesheet for the shape, I don't see a Text Transform section or any fields that are titled TxtAngle. Is it my version of Visio? Or am I building my shapes wrong?

Victorc · 07-05-2011, 09:00 PM

Right click on any other section (head title) and the right click menu will allow you to see (by checking) the Text Transform section.

ekalpakoff · 07-05-2011, 09:17 PM

Ok, thank you Microsoft for making a simple task difficult...

So Text Transform is checked however greyed out assuming its because I need to unlock level three warlock status or I need more manna or something stupid. None of the headers say "Text Transform" however. I do have boxes titled: Character, Paragraph, and Tabs, but none contain "TxtAngle" do I need to create the text area differently in order for the header to show up? The shape I am testing on is just a simple circle shape with a foot on it for a wall mounted speaker. I want to be able to rotate the speaker so the foot can be on any wall in the plan view.

Victorc · 07-05-2011, 11:35 PM

When you right clicked on a head title section did you click the View Sections… option?

ekalpakoff · 07-08-2011, 05:00 PM

So here is what i get

attached image shows the grayed out "Text transform" and the second image shows what headers are showing up in the shapesheet. If i had to guess, it is because I am maybe creating my custom shapes wrong but IDK.

Victorc · 07-08-2011, 09:52 PM

Just follow these steps:

Set to Edit Stencil
Right click on your custom shape > Edit Master > Edit Master Shape
Right click on shape > show shapesheet
Right click on a header title > Insert Section…
Check the Shape data and User-defined cells sections box
Then add to the shape data ComponentID with value “ComponentID”
Add to the User-defined cells section a reference as TXT1 with a value as Prop.ComponentID
Close shapesheet
From the main menu Insert > field…
Select the User-defined Cells and then the TXT1 reference
Right click on the shape again and click show shapesheet
Right click on a header section > Insert Section… and check TEXT TRANSFORM section box
Scroll down to Text Transform and set the TxtAngle value to –Angle
Close the Shapesheet and the edit master shape, and then click YES to save it
Drag and drop the custom shape onto the drawing area (selecting a product) and rotate it from the top handle.

ekalpakoff · 07-11-2011, 04:05 PM

Vic, Thanks for the info. I haven't made it work yet but if I understand you correctly, this was a quick tutorial on how I can create a custom shape and link it to a product with a componentID. If I understand right, this wasn't my original intention with my custom shape, but this is way better. I will play around with it and see if I can make it work. So far I followed the instructions and it placing the text into the shape but not rotating it, I need to go back and check my work, I'll let you know. Thank you so much for the help.

ekalpakoff · 07-11-2011, 05:07 PM

Ok, I can get it to work on the existing D-Tools stencils which is awesome BTW thank you. However what I have found is that if I change any of the geometry of the stencil, the text no longer rotates. For example, I wanted to add a "foot" to the plate stencil, so I was able to get the text to rotate like I planned however once I added just a simple line to the shape the text no longer would rotate correctly. This is probably the reason that it doesn't work at all on my custom shape. Is there a reason why adding a line to a shape would break that feature?