BETA Visio filter

BETA Visio filter for FlowCharter 6 or 7

Full version of this filter is included in FlowCharter 7c.

Suggestion: Print this page from your web browser and use it as an installation guide.

To Install the BETA Visio filter

Download the file named INSTALL.EXE.

Double-click the file to begin the installation.

Carefully read the text and follow the directions.

BETA Visio filter Requirements, limitations, and bugs

Requirements

The Visio converter requires Flow 6 or better for basic translation. If your Visio file contains shapes that have been rotated, Flow 7 is required. For accurate text placement, install the FlowCharter 7.0a patch (available at www.micrografx.com).

The Visio filter requires 32-bit Visio 4.0 or later.

Limitations of beta version

Lines may not route the same way. If text is meant to be associated with a line, attach the text to the line in Visio. Otherwise, the text will not route with the line in FlowCharter.

Visio supports multiple pages of varying sizes in one document. Each Visio page translates to a new FlowCharter document. The page is saved as chartname, chartname1, and so on.

Visio layers have nothing to do with z-order. In FlowCharter, layers are directly related to z-order. For this reason no layer information is translated.

Visio background pages are added as layers in FlowCharter 7, and are just drawn below everything else in FlowCharter 6.

Visio has shapes that generate lines as needed. These lines are translated as part of the shape rather than as lines connected to the shape.

Visio has lines with more than two ends. The converter attempts to simulate this, however a 1:1 match is not possible.

Text position on lines will not be accurately restored.

Lines will only connect to the middle of the top, left, bottom, or right side of a shape.

Text in FlowCharter never flows over the top of the containing shape, it always wraps down. In Visio, the text spills equally over the top and bottom edges of the shape. Consequently, text may get misplaced in this situation. You can avoid this problem by ensuring that text containers are as tall as the text they contain in Visio.

No attempt is made to calculate the correct size and position of objects that Visio reports as foreign (for example, bitmaps and clipart from other vendors). If there are shapes in the chart that are foreign and they do not fit in their bounding box, they will not translate at the correct proportions to FlowCharter.

In FlowCharter 7 or higher, shape text will always be rotated to the same angle as the shape.

In FlowCharter 6, text will never be rotated.

What translates well? What doesn't?

Flowcharts and process-type charts translate well.

Technical illustrations and drawings with many intricately placed lines do not translate well.

Charts with custom lines which do special things (for example, pie charts and timelines) will not translate well.

The viscon.cfg file (advanced)

The viscon.cfg file is a text file that forces certain shapes to translate in a non-default manner. For instance, Visio has objects that are technically lines, but are better represented as shapes. In this case, the master the line is based on can be listed under the "::lines that should draw as shapes" section of the viscon.cfg file. This will force the line to draw as a shape. Valid sections in the config file are as follow:

::lines that should draw as direct lines
::shapes that should draw as groups
::lines with text at end
::lines with text at source
::lines that should draw as shapes
::lines that should be drawn filled

If you wish for shapes based on a particular master to translate in one of these non-default ways, simply list it under the appropriate section. A single master item can appear in multiple sections. Below is a sample section.

::lines that should be drawn filled
Double flexi-arrow
45 degree single
60 degree single
Fancy Arrow

If the viscon.cfg file somehow becomes damaged you may simply delete it and the converter will create a default one the next time it is run. The location of the viscon.cfg file varies depending on the location of Visio. The easiest way to find it is to search for it from Explorer.