Tags: attempting, cell, changing, color, fill, foreground, group, microsoft, msdn, shape, shapeprogrammatically, software, value, visio
Changing Fill Color
On Microsoft » Microsoft Visio
10,500 words with 5 Comments; publish: Mon, 26 May 2008 11:48:00 GMT; (30062.50, « »)
I am attempting to change the fill color of the outer shape of a group shape
programmatically.
I change the value of the fill foreground cell from my program and the
change is accepted but has no effect on the fill color of the shape.
If I manually right-click on the shape and select a fill format, the fill
color changes. If I enter the same value in the shapesheet fillforeground
cell, the color doesn't change. This seems to only happen with shapes that
are a group shape...shapes that are not a group work fine.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
Chuck
http://ms-visio.itags.org/q_microsoft-visio_18671.html
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- 5 Comments
- Hello Chuck,
if you change the FillForegnd cell of your group shape, nothing happens
because the group shape itself does not have any geometries that could be
filled. (You will not find a Geometry section in the group shape's
ShapeSheet.)
If you change the fill color via the GUI (toolbar or context menu of your
group shape), Visio automatically changes the FillForegnd cell of your group
shape AND the FillForegnd cells of all shapes inside the group.
Possible solution: Assumed your group shape is "Sheet.1", place the
following formula into the FillForegnd cells of all the shapes inside the
group:
Sheet.1!FillForegnd
Alternative solution: Iterate programmatically through all shapes inside
your group and set the FillForegnd value separately for each shape.
Best regards,
Markus
"Chuck Cobb" <chuckcobb.ms-visio.itags.org.aol.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:%23njy%235qDEHA.1604.ms-visio.itags.org.TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> I am attempting to change the fill color of the outer shape of a group
shape
> programmatically.
> I change the value of the fill foreground cell from my program and the
> change is accepted but has no effect on the fill color of the shape.
> If I manually right-click on the shape and select a fill format, the fill
> color changes. If I enter the same value in the shapesheet fillforeground
> cell, the color doesn't change. This seems to only happen with shapes
that
> are a group shape...shapes that are not a group work fine.
> Any ideas?
> Thanks,
> Chuck
>
#1; Mon, 26 May 2008 11:49:00 GMT
- Thanks, Markus...I appreciate your help. I suppose I will have to iterate
through the individual cells in the group to change the fill format.
I have a related question...when a user applies a shadow to the outer group
via Visio, the shadow gets applied not only to the outer group (which is
what I want), but also gets applied to all the inner shapes within the
group. Is there a way I can prevent that from happening? It creates this
rather strange looking shape that has shadows within the shape as well as
shadows outside the shape.
Thanks,
Chuck
"Markus Breugst" <SorryNoEmail_TooMuchSpam> wrote in message
news:uIbfh0yDEHA.3716.ms-visio.itags.org.TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
> Hello Chuck,
> if you change the FillForegnd cell of your group shape, nothing happens
> because the group shape itself does not have any geometries that could be
> filled. (You will not find a Geometry section in the group shape's
> ShapeSheet.)
> If you change the fill color via the GUI (toolbar or context menu of your
> group shape), Visio automatically changes the FillForegnd cell of your
group
> shape AND the FillForegnd cells of all shapes inside the group.
> Possible solution: Assumed your group shape is "Sheet.1", place the
> following formula into the FillForegnd cells of all the shapes inside the
> group:
> Sheet.1!FillForegnd
> Alternative solution: Iterate programmatically through all shapes inside
> your group and set the FillForegnd value separately for each shape.
> Best regards,
> Markus
> "Chuck Cobb" <chuckcobb.ms-visio.itags.org.aol.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
> news:%23njy%235qDEHA.1604.ms-visio.itags.org.TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> shape
fill
fillforeground
> that
>
#2; Mon, 26 May 2008 11:50:00 GMT
- Well, the shadow problem is really strongly related to the fill color
problem: If you define a shadow of a group shape via the GUI, Visio applies
it separately to all sub shapes. Thus, the result is a separate shadow for
each shape inside the group.
I don't know your shapes, but perhaps you should combine them using the
operations provided in the menu "Shape -> Operations" rather then by
grouping them. The result of such a shape operation is still a single(!)
shape and not a group consisting of multiple shapes. Thus, you will have a
single fill color, a single shadow etc.. (However, the drawback is that such
a combined shape (like every other singel shape) can only have one color,
shadow, ...)
If your sub shapes need to have different colors and/or line appearances,
you cannot realize them with these shape operations. In this case, in order
to achieve a "group shadow" instead of single shadows, try the following:
1.) Select your group.
2.) Create a copy of your group (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V).
3.) Select the copy of the group.
4.) Invoke the menu item "Shape -> Operations -> Union". The result will be
a shape whose outline is a combination of the outlines of your single group
shapes
5.) Invoke the context menu item "Shape -> Send to back" on the union shape.
6.) Define a shadow for the union shape.
6.) Move the union shape over (or better: behind) your original group shape.
7.) Select them all (the original group and the union shape) and group them.
Hope this is the result you wanted to have.
Best regards,
Markus
"Chuck Cobb" <chuckcobb.ms-visio.itags.org.aol.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:e3RbDnzDEHA.2768.ms-visio.itags.org.tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> Thanks, Markus...I appreciate your help. I suppose I will have to iterate
> through the individual cells in the group to change the fill format.
> I have a related question...when a user applies a shadow to the outer
group
> via Visio, the shadow gets applied not only to the outer group (which is
> what I want), but also gets applied to all the inner shapes within the
> group. Is there a way I can prevent that from happening? It creates this
> rather strange looking shape that has shadows within the shape as well as
> shadows outside the shape.
> Thanks,
> Chuck
> "Markus Breugst" <SorryNoEmail_TooMuchSpam> wrote in message
> news:uIbfh0yDEHA.3716.ms-visio.itags.org.TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
be
your
> group
the
> fill
> fillforeground
>
#3; Mon, 26 May 2008 11:51:00 GMT
- ... And perhaps lock the shadow patterns on all of the sub-shapes, except
the Unioned shape, so that if users apply a shadow, they won't be back at
the original problem.
ShdwPattern = Guard(0)
Hope this helps,
Chris Roth
Visio MVP
"Markus Breugst" <SorryNoEmail_TooMuchSpam> wrote in message
news:eCm%23S20DEHA.688.ms-visio.itags.org.tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> Well, the shadow problem is really strongly related to the fill color
> problem: If you define a shadow of a group shape via the GUI, Visio
applies
> it separately to all sub shapes. Thus, the result is a separate shadow for
> each shape inside the group.
> I don't know your shapes, but perhaps you should combine them using the
> operations provided in the menu "Shape -> Operations" rather then by
> grouping them. The result of such a shape operation is still a single(!)
> shape and not a group consisting of multiple shapes. Thus, you will have a
> single fill color, a single shadow etc.. (However, the drawback is that
such
> a combined shape (like every other singel shape) can only have one color,
> shadow, ...)
> If your sub shapes need to have different colors and/or line appearances,
> you cannot realize them with these shape operations. In this case, in
order
> to achieve a "group shadow" instead of single shadows, try the following:
> 1.) Select your group.
> 2.) Create a copy of your group (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V).
> 3.) Select the copy of the group.
> 4.) Invoke the menu item "Shape -> Operations -> Union". The result will
be
> a shape whose outline is a combination of the outlines of your single
group
> shapes
> 5.) Invoke the context menu item "Shape -> Send to back" on the union
shape.
> 6.) Define a shadow for the union shape.
> 6.) Move the union shape over (or better: behind) your original group
shape.
> 7.) Select them all (the original group and the union shape) and group
them.
> Hope this is the result you wanted to have.
> Best regards,
> Markus
> "Chuck Cobb" <chuckcobb.ms-visio.itags.org.aol.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
> news:e3RbDnzDEHA.2768.ms-visio.itags.org.tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
iterate
> group
this
as
happens
> be
> your
> the
inside
group
the
shapes
>
#4; Mon, 26 May 2008 11:52:00 GMT
- Thanks, Chris...
Guarding that cell did the job.
"Chris Roth" <visioguy.ms-visio.itags.org.hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:eIebmECEEHA.3256.ms-visio.itags.org.TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
> ... And perhaps lock the shadow patterns on all of the sub-shapes, except
> the Unioned shape, so that if users apply a shadow, they won't be back at
> the original problem.
> ShdwPattern = Guard(0)
> --
> Hope this helps,
> Chris Roth
> Visio MVP
>
> "Markus Breugst" <SorryNoEmail_TooMuchSpam> wrote in message
> news:eCm%23S20DEHA.688.ms-visio.itags.org.tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> applies
for
a
> such
color,
appearances,
> order
following:
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> shape.
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> them.
> iterate
is
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> as
> happens
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your
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> inside
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shape.
the
> shapes
>
#5; Mon, 26 May 2008 11:53:00 GMT