Anyone know where i can download Linksys stencils? I've been searching but hadn't had any luck yet. I know i've downloaded them before but that was before Cisco.
How to create a custom Visio Shape (Stencils) of a Linksys (Cisco) Product.
Get the Model number of the device. (Located on the front or back of the device) In this example, I’m looking for a picture of a Linksys EF2H16 16 port hub.
Open Google.com and do an image search for the device you’re looking for. If your device is not listed you might have to take an actual picture of the device and transfer it to your pc. But most likely there will be a picture of it in the search results.
When you find your device, Right click on the picture and click “Save picture as” default save location is User Profile\My Pictures.
Once saved you can open the picture in your picture editor and edit or crop out anything not wanted in the picture.
Open a new or existing visio diagram.
(These next steps differ from Visio versions. I have Visio 2010.)
Click on the Insert Tab?Picture. Find your picture and open it. Your picture should show up on your drawing.
Next, In the Shapes window pane, click on “More Shapes?New Stencil. There should be a new entry in you shapes window pane with the title of “Stencil1”. Drag and drop your picture into the shapes window pane where it says “Drop Quick Shapes here”
Right click on the picture you just dragged and dropped. Click on “Edit master?Master properties” Enter your device information.
Next, Click on the diskette icon located in the “Stencil1” bar. Name your stencil and save it. You now have a Custom Visio stencil with a .VSS extension.
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Since most network diagrams due not use most of the intelligence of Visio, your solution works just fine. As you outlined, you only need to place a picture within a Visio shape, add shape data and connection points. If you need to add different colours to some of the lights to the shape to indicate the stape of the machine, you can overlay the picture with a small circle to cover the actual light on the device and then control the colour, red, green or yellow through Visio smarts.
Thanks for the reply John, I went to the link you mentioned aboved before and the linksys support was fast to point me to that link.
My quest for stencils from Linksys was a journey i hope no one goes through. It was like talking to a wall. Nobody knew what a visio stencil was and when i asked them if they know about Microsoft Visio, they would imidiately cut me off and tell me they didn't support microsoft products. Then they would figure out a way to transfer me to someone else. Who, of course have no idea what i was talking about. It was great fun.
Of course, rather than copy the stencils I decided to just provide links so the original creators get to retain their Intellectual Property rights. The downside is that a number of those links are broken and some good shapes have been lost.
Visio Cafe is a good source for hapes that deal with the IT industry and they are provided for free.
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