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Powershell and Visio: Move objects and add text

Posted by: | June 11, 2010 | 2 Comments |

Lets take our look a Visio a bit further and move objects around and change the text labels

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## create visio document
$visio = New-Object -ComObject Visio.Application
$docs = $visio.Documents

## use basic template
$doc = $docs.Add("Basic Diagram.vst")

## set active page
$pages = $visio.ActiveDocument.Pages
$page = $pages.Item(1)

## Add a stencil
$mysten = "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\Visio Content\1033\EntApp_M.vss"
$stencil = $visio.Documents.Add($mysten)

## Add objects
$server = $stencil.Masters.Item("Server")
$workstn = $stencil.Masters.Item("Workstation")

$shape1 = $page.Drop($server, 2, 2)
$shape2 = $page.Drop($workstn, 5, 5)

## Resize Objects
$shape1.Resize(1, 5, 70)
$shape2.Resize(1, 5, 70)

## Connect Objects
$connect = $page.Drop($page.Application.ConnectorToolDataObject,0,0)
$start = $connect.CellsU("BeginX").GlueTo($shape1.CellsU("PinX"))
$end = $connect.CellsU("EndX").GlueTo($shape2.CellsU("PinX"))

## move objects
$shape2.SetCenter(4,9)
$shape1.SetCenter(4,4)

## Add text
$shape1.Text = "File Server"
$shape2.Text = "My Workstation"

$doc.SaveAs("c:\scripts\visio\draw1.vsd")
$visio.Quit()

 

To move an object we can use the SetCenter method.  The numbers are X & Y co-ordinates.  The origin is at the bottom left corner (0,0).  Depending on what units and paper size you are using – using A4 I get 8,11 as an approximation to the top right corner so I’m guessing the co-ordinates represent inches. Check on your implementation.

The text is simply changed by setting the Text property as shown.

Now we have the basics of working with Visio – its time to think what we can do with it.

under: Office 2010, PowerShellV2
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2 Comments

  1. By: Arnaud L. on June 6, 2011 at 5:35 am      

    Hi Richard, thank for all your posts about powershell v2 and Visio 2010, they help me very well !

    I’ve just a question about an issue:

    How can i add somes shape data information for original stencils ?
    I mean, when i want to use Network Diagram stencil, they are some information (shape data) like “Location, Version, Type” etc … than can I (normally) set.

    I can’t edit it with powershell. Have you some trick for this ?

    thanks !

  2. By: rad on January 20, 2012 at 4:01 am      

    How dó i rotate and object?