I would like to programmatically(C#) update/replace all shapes of a given visio flowchart(*.vsd). The diagram layout remain the same(all connections, coordinates etc. are the same), but the master-shapes should be different(from different stencil).
Any examples, suggestions and ideas are highly appreciated.
Thanks for your suggestions! The source-diagram has many protected shapes that are grouped(+multiple subshapes), so I guess it will be better, if I take all the information for a given source-shape, and then drop a new master from the target-stencil and set these properties. Next, I would take the next Shape and do the same. I would create a new Visio document, since I’m not sure, whether the source Page-ShapeSheet is not customized someway. But I don't know how to do basic steps programmatically in C# e.g.
how to create new vsd file within C# (maybe
application.Documents.AddEx(“”))
must I then open this document with application.Document.OpenEx, or the document is already open/active
must I create a new Page within this document
-…
In this post: "save and close visio documents visual basic macro
" similar steps explained, but in VBA and not in C#.
I'd suggest just using Visio 2013, which has that function out of the box.
However, that's probably not going to work for you. I've taken two different routes in the past, depending on what differences there were between the original and the replacement shape.
One way to do this is, to copy as many attributes as you can between the shapes, and duplicate the glues and everything. So to do this, you just copy the width, height, pins, etc.., and then step through all the glues in the original shape, and move the glues to the new shape.
The other way, which is a bit cleaner, in my opinion, is wholesale copying all the geometry sections from the original into the destination shape. This makes it so you don't have to worry about glues and formatting and things, and are just copying over the graphics that make up the shape.
If you have a grouped shape with multiple subshapes, it's probably going to be easier to drop a new master out, but if it's just a simple graphic-type shape, copying the geometry is probably better.
One thing to be aware of with the "copy the geometries" method is, you have to make sure any user cells or controls which are precedent to any geometry cells in the new shape also exist in the original shape. Visio's Cell class tells you the precedents for a cell, so this is easy enough to do.
Hope that helps.
I think you can extract some information from these two links and play with it:
Visio shape - get X,Y position
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc160747.aspx
Related
This is more of a "Is it possible (with a reasonable amount of time and work)" than a "how exactly is it possible" question. I'm getting into WPF at the moment and am interested in graphical applications in an MVVM approach. In the meaning of an ms-paint like application. Now I see that and how I can draw e.g. a ractangle on a canvas, store those rectangles in a list etc.
But I am wondering if I can do that more advanced. For example extend the rectangle so I can give it more infos (I can't extend the rectangle itself since it's a sealed class), have existing shapes on the canvas able to drag them around, make the shapes complex (e.g. I double click one to open a new Window that represents the "inside" of that shape) etc.
Is such an application possible with a reasonable amount of work and time in WPF or would I rather use some different library/framework for this?
Yes, It is possible, Actually, you are listing CAD specifications, In fact, I work on this type of technology, so I'll suggest you some resources to have a clue..
Take a look at this project(WPF, 2D)
And this one(WPF, 3D)
And this one(WPF, 2D)
The previous projects are WPF-based, also, you might host a WinForm control in your WPF app, take a look at this one(WinForms, 2D)
If you change the specification a bit and say: "I don't want to edit the drawings on the canvas", then you could go with this option: convert your shapes to PathFigureCollection and EllipseGeometry objects, then construct Paths from these objects and add the Paths to the Canvas, this is a pure WPF approach. Indeed, you can add traditinal controls like TextBlocks as children to your Canvas, I have done such one like this..
Hope it helps.
I am trying to create a WPF application using C# to run on Pixelsense that is basic version of the tangram puzzle. I am able to draw my 7 shapes and translate and rotate them all around the screen.
Could anyone give me advise regarding how I should go about saving the pattern (with shapes in specific positions and orientations) so that when a user creates the pattern next time, the application can match it to the saved one and tell the user if it's correct.
It's a pattern matching and recognition problem that I am trying to solve.
I have been stuck on this for a while now :(
Define the solution as a collection of objects with shapeType, position, and orientation properties. Have the solution include one shape at position 0, 0 and an orientation of 0. Now loop over all the shapes the user has actually placed to find the ones with a shapeType that matches the shape your solution has at 0,0,0. Calculate the position and orientation of every other shape relative to where the user put this one. Compare those values to the rest of your solution. You'll need to experiment with how much tolerance to allow because this stuff is not precise - to make the game fun, err on the side of having high tolerances. If needed, you can follow this up with some performance optimizations to only re-evaluate pieces that moved.
Hopefully you are using physical shape prices with tags on them instead of this purely a virtual game. I always wanted to build this when I was on the Surface team but it never happened. One challenge you will run into is defining how the tag's position/orientation relates to the actual shape. If you'll be putting tag stickers on multiple tangram sets, you almost certainly won't get the on precisely the same each time so you may need to add a "calibration" mode to your app (have the user place each piece in a specific spot and then push a button so you can record where the tag is relative to those spots). The TagVisualizer WPF control should help a lot for building your UI - definitely look into using it (this scenario was top of mind when we designed that API). The default behavior of that control (if you tell it the ID of a tag to look for but not how to visualize it) is a "crosshair" that can help you find tune your offset values.
Good luck! If you wouldn't mind recording a YouTube video when you are done and posting a comment here linking to it, I'd really appreciate that
You can use ObservableCollection or List of a custom class. That class can consist of various values such as position, orientation etc as properties.
When a new pattern is drawn or when the pattern change its position you can update that particular object stored in the collection. As you have all the details of the pattern(positions and orientation) you can iterate the for loop and check the position of the new pattern when added.
I'm working on a Add-in for PowerPoint 2010 (C#) and I want to prevent the end-user to move or edit all the shapes that I have programmatically created.
I have already sought in the framework but I think it's not allowed programmaticaly. Has anyone already encountered this kind of limitations and could help me to find a solution?
I know that some people create their add-in thanks to C++ because there are a lot of limitations in office.
I have found two solutions :
The first is to catch all events from the "commandBars.OnUpdate" like this great sample code : http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/CSExcelNewEventForShapes-0e26b1f2#content
Then you can impose the position/the color or everything you want to your shape.
The second one is more "brutal" > unselect immediately the shape. When you catch all the events from the "CommandBars.OnUpdate" do this :
To see which shape is selected :
var selectedShape = this.Application.ActiveWindow.Selection.ShapeRange[1]
In all my shapes, I have set a tag with an ID. I have just to check that there are an ID in the tags of the selectedShape and if this is the case :
this.Application.ActiveWindow.Selection.Unselect();
Then I show a messageBox to warn the user to do not select this kind of shape.
I don't like this solution but it's the only one that I have found and it works.
I believe this is not possible. A way of achieving this to a certain extent (people can work around it if they figure out how to select the shapes below) is by making a transparent rectangle the size of the canvas and binding a custom event to that (like you described in your comment). The transparent rectangle is overlaying the shapes you created so people can no longer access the shapes that way. Of course if they are capable of figuring out how to select the shapes they can move them anyway...
Alternatively, to make people not do stuff like that (you only stop the inexperienced) you can also set them up as master slides.
Only 'real' solution for people not doing that? Images .. but then they can move the image too!
I have the following needs. There are some number of forms, i.e blanks - for example the ones used in surveys. The ones which aren't filled with information, I will call image templates from now on. Apart from the image templates, I have also many images, which are essentially the image templates filled with information. For example, there is a survey and there are two blanks for filling - these are the image templates. Many people have filled the blanks with their personal information and these are the images.
The image templates are scanned in a perfect shape. But many of the scanned images are tilted or not properly aligned, or maybe scaled. So I have the following requirement - every image must be recognized to which image template it belongs. After it is recognized, it must be properly skewed, aligned and scaled to the image template.
I know this is a complex task and that's why I need a library, preferably a C# one. I have found AForge, but till now I have only seen a suitable method for skewing. Essentially I need a library which takes as input an image template and an image, and sets a flag if the image does not match to the image template. But if it matchs it must return the appropriate skew angle, alignment and scaling.
If you have any ideas or used such a library, I will appreciate it greatly.
Wish you all the best,
Petar
The problem seems to be an image registration problem coupled with some template matching problem.
image registration
Depending on how the scanned document may be distorted (scale factor, rotation, skew...) one can register images using simple rigid transform (i.e. translation + rotation, only two corresponding points are needed) to more complex one such as non rigid transform (more corresponding point are needed). The corresponding points can be manually given but ideally should be automatically detected.
ITK library includes several methods for image registration
template matching problem
Once your images are aligned, the comparison between an image and possible templates database could be achieved by first extracting characteristic features in the image and comparing them to your template database. This is very general and should be refined with respect to the image used.
There is other way that combine both image registration and template matching
the Bag Of Features approach which consists in extracting interesting points (robust to several types of image deformation) from the image, the points generate a signature that characterizes the image, the image comparison being in fact a signature comparison.
I used to work for a company, Accusoft Pegasus, which has some interesting forms recognition software. I've not seen their FormFix tool in action in a few years, but it should be able to do what you are needing.
I have no idea what the correct name for this UI style is. In MS Access the 'relationships' tool shows the db tables as little movable boxes that can be linked with lines. It's the same with Visio and a few audio apps - boxes that are movable, containing lines of text that can be joined together in a meaningful way.
How could I create a similar thing in .NET using Visual Studio 2008 and C#? I've never created my own controls before.
Here's an image of the sort of thing I mean: Click for example
You'll need two main custom controls: the main view and the table control.
The table control is responsible for drawing itself with all of its columns and ensuring that the item can scroll if need be. It is also responsible for providing an x/y co-ordinate for a specified row header. This is so that the relationship lines can match up to the correct row.
The main view is responsible for accepting a list of table objects (stored in a custom table object), creating the same number of table controls and arranging them in a specified order. It is also responsible for drawing the lines between the table controls.
All in all, this is not trivial. You'll want to override the OnPaint() method of both these controls to do all this custom drawing. Do some research on the GDI+ graphics routines to find out what methods you can use to draw this. You'll probably be using these objects/methods most often:
Pen
SolidBrush
LinearGradientBrush
DrawRectangle()
FillRectangle()
DrawString()
DrawImage()
DrawLine()
DrawPath()
You'll also need to trap all kinds of mouse events to enable moving the controls around. This can be done by overriding methods such as OnMouseDown or OnMouseMove.
Good luck.
The diagram you are trying to draw is an ERD or Database design. What you might also be looking for is a Class Diagram.
What you are trying to do is pretty complex.
Here are some links that might help. These are all open source type UML tools that do diagraming.
http://imar.spaanjaars.com/501/automatically-generating-class-diagrams-from-a-type-using-reflection
http://www.codebydesign.com/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/use-case-maker/
http://projects.gnome.org/dia/
http://www.monouml.org/doku.php?id=documentation