Drawing Shapes: PID Valves

Learn how to draw custom Visio shapes from scratch using Visio's Pencil and Line tools, as well as how to add Connection Points to shapes.

[@billmckinzie]

Visio is my favorite drawing package!

[@AztecWarrior69]

I would like to add that when you are making lines with the pencil tool, if you go straight up/left/ right you will get a straight line, but if you go out at an angle you get an arc. To move the end point without adding a new segment , get out of the pencil tool and back to pointer tool. When the ends turn (or any point) blue grab and move. If you lock your primary Shape's width, height and the LockCalWH before adding the rest of the lines then the alignment box won't change. Unprotect The Height and Width after if you want it so. Lock aspect ratio. Also put LockCalWH=Guard(1) so it won't get changed. When Visio wants to change things or the update bounding box button is pressed.

[@olo-burrows]

This guy knows his stuff.

[@billmckinzie]

Thank you. So helpful.

[@MrSupremeCinema]

This was very helpful. Thank you.

[@Graham_Wideman]

Hi Chris!

[@AztecWarrior69]

Forgot to mention that you didn't have to UnGroup the shape to redo the alignment box. 13:52. What you can do is pull in the shapes into the main shape. So that they all fit within the main shapes alignment box. The go to Developer Tab, in Shape design, Orientations drop down, all the way at the bottom is Update alignment Box. It will Update the alignment box, then you LockCalWH = Guard(1). Now you can move the shapes back into position. Why go through all that? Well there might come a time when all your shapes are linked to each other. If you UnGroup, they will lose all the data that links them together.

[@VisioGuy]

Thanks for adding all the additional info, hopefully it will help intermediate users become masters! I try to keep things a bit simple in the videos. This one is already 20 minutes, which is way too long these days! Ungrouping destroying shape data, etc. is a really important point, but I avoided it in this video, since it was more about pure drawing.

[@AztecWarrior69]

@@VisioGuy Yes I understand that you intend to make this for beginners, by the way I AM a beginner far from being an intermediate, but the reason I made the comment is BECAUSE I AM a beginner. If I had known, that bit of info from the start, I would not have wasted hours and hours trying to do what you are doing in this video, and not losing all the data that took hours to learn.

[@petermsnted8492]

Great info and presentation, Thanks!! One question: at 12:29 you move the center point and then the end point of a line to form an arc. I'm able to move the centerpoint but not the endpoint. The pencil tool will only extend the line from the end. Do I maybe have a wrong setting somewhere? Thanks...

[@VisioGuy]

Hi Peter, Took me a few minutes to figure out what was going on, but I think I've solved it. The first and last points behave differently, because user intent isn't clear. For most points, you can click-drag in one movement (notice the crosshairs mouse cursor). However, at the ends, click-drag will extend the "polygon" and add a new segment. So, to tell Visio that you want to move these points: click to highlight a point (turns magenta), and then you can drag that point. Notice the cursor changes to the crosshairs, indicating that dragging is possible. If you watch the video again, you'll see that I do a sort of "double move" over the endpoint. This is where I clicked, then went back to drag the point.

[@petermsnted8492]

@@VisioGuy Thank you so much for the answer,, really appreciate your effort😊 Looking forward to test this solution.

[@AztecWarrior69]

@@petermsnted8492 To move the end point without adding a new segment , get out of the pencil tool and back to pointer tool. When the ends turn (or any point) blue grab and move. I would like to add that when you are making lines with the pencil tool, if you go straight up/left/ right you will get a straight line, but if you go out at an angle you get an arc.