Copyright: (C) 1996-1997 Visio Corporation
Citation: (C) 1996-1997 Visio Corporation


Basic Network Template

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For information about how a specific shape behaves, right-click the shape, then choose Shape Help.

Follow these steps to create and revise a network diagram.

To efficiently create a network diagram:

1.	Drop a ring, bus, Ethernet, or other network topology shape on the drawing page.

2.	Drop computer, printer, and other shapes in the vicinity of the ring, bus, or Ethernet shape.

3.	Select the ring, bus, or Ethernet shape, then place the pointer over a control handle. When the pointer changes to a four-way arrow, drag it to a connection point ( [image]) on one of the surrounding shapes.

The control handle turns red, indicating that it's glued to the connection point.

4.	To add or replace existing text, select a shape, then type.

The text blocks of most network shapes have a control handle you can drag to reposition text.

5.	To change the point of connection on a shape, select the connector shape with the endpoint you want to move. Place the pointer over the connector's endpoint, and, when it becomes a four-headed arrow, drag the endpoint to the new location.

6.	To rearrange shapes, select the shape you want to move, then drag it to a new location. The shape retains its connections.

See also:

Creating and revising connected drawings

Network diagrams and layers

When you create a network diagram, Visio places the network shapes on layers. For example, when you drop a Macintosh shape, Visio adds the shape to an Apple layer and a general Network layer.

A layer is a named category of shapes. When shapes are assigned to separate layers, you can treat the shapes separately. For example, you can hide or lock all layers except the one you want to work on or you can print shapes based on their layer assignments. You can also generate numeric or inventory reports for shapes on particular layers.

See also:

About layers

To view only one manufacturer's shapes in a network diagram:

1.	Choose View > Layer Properties.

2.	Under Visible, uncheck all the layers (including Network) except the layer you want to view, then click OK.

Network shape properties

By default, Visio associates property fields with each 2-D network shape. For example, the Desktop PC shape has ID, Location, Manufacturer, Product Name, Model Number, and Description properties. You can enter data into the fields by right-clicking any shape, and choosing Properties from the menu.

If you want to associate additional data with your network shapes, you can run the Custom Properties Editor to add properties.

To run the Custom Properties Editor:

•	Choose Tools > Macro > Custom Properties Editor.

See also:

Adding, editing, and deleting custom-property fields

Generating reports from properties

If you've entered data for the properties associated with your network shapes, you can run the Property Reporting Wizard to generate inventory or numerical reports based on the data. For example, you could create an inventory for all the equipment in a particular network.

To run the Property Reporting Wizard:

•	Choose Tools > Property Report.

See also:

Creating reports from custom data

Creating databases from network diagrams

If the shapes in your diagram contain custom property data, you can run the Network Database Wizard to create a Microsoft Access 7.0 database from the drawing.

You can also link records in a database to shapes in a Visio network diagram. After establishing links, you can pass data between the diagram and the database. (The database must be created by an ODBC-compliant application.)

See also:

Creating ODBC databases based on network diagrams

To run the Network Database Wizard:

•	Choose Tools > Network Database Wizard.

Creating network diagrams from databases

You can run the Network Diagram Wizard to generate a network diagram from an ODBC-compliant database that contains data about the physical structure of a network and its nodes.

See also:

About creating drawings from data

To run the Network Diagram Wizard:

*	Choose Tools > Network Diagram Wizard.

Linking network shapes to other drawing pages, other files, or World Wide Web locations

You can add navigational links to any shape in your diagram, so that users of the diagram can right-click the shape to jump to separate drawing pages, separate files, or documents on an intranet or the Web. For example, you can link a router in one network diagram to another diagram in which you show the equipment attached to the router.

To add links to shapes:

•	Choose Insert > Hyperlink.

See also:

Adding, modifying, and deleting hyperlinks

Placing Visio drawings on the World Wide Web

You can easily convert a Visio drawing to a format Web browsers can read. Then you can distribute the drawing on an intranet or the Web.

See also:

Exporting shapes and drawings in .jpg or .gif format

Saving drawings as HTML pages


Network diagrams and layers

Network shape properties

Generating reports from properties

Creating databases from network diagrams

Creating network diagrams from databases

Linking network shapes to other drawing pages, other files, or World Wide Web locations

Placing Visio drawings on the World Wide Web