Visio Programming Questions

[hhinman]

I am trying to modify one of the standard sample applications I found for programming Visio from VB.NET. The application code is below. I am quite confused about a couple of things. I found something on your web site that does not work in my application, which I suspect is because your sample is evidently for VBA and I am using VB.NET. The statement:

shpObj.Cells("LineColor") = 2

Receives an error in intelligence and will not compile claiming that "LineColor" is a read only property. I actually have 3 questions I would greatly appreciate any help or being pointed to a forum.

Here are the three questions I am trying to get answered:

1. How do you see the background color of one of the Visio Shapes you drop on a page?

2. How do you change the page size so diagrams don't flow off the page?

3. Where is there technical documentation showing methods and properties available for the Visio activex object being used below?

Below is the code I have been working with:

Thanks Much,
-Howard

Imports Microsoft.Office.Interop
Module Module1
Public aryValues(5, 2) As String
Sub fBuildArray()
aryValues(0, 0) = "Terminator"
aryValues(1, 0) = "Document"
aryValues(2, 0) = "Decision"
aryValues(3, 0) = "Process"
aryValues(4, 0) = "Terminator"

aryValues(0, 1) = "Begin Routing Process"
aryValues(1, 1) = "Gather Customer Data"
aryValues(2, 1) = "Supported Issue?"
aryValues(3, 1) = "Dispatch to Queue"
aryValues(4, 1) = "End Routing Process"
End Sub

Sub fBuildFlowchart()
Dim vApp As Visio.Application
Dim vDoc As Visio.Document
Dim vFromShape As Visio.Shape
Dim vToShape As Visio.Shape
Dim vConnector As Visio.Shape
Dim vFlowChartMaster As Visio.Master
Dim vConnectorMaster As Visio.Master
Dim vStencil As Visio.Document
Dim dblXLocation As Double
Dim dblYLocation As Double
Dim vBeginCell As Visio.Cell
Dim vEndCell As Visio.Cell
Dim iCount As Integer
Const TEMPLATEPATH = "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Visio10\1033\" _
& "Solutions\Flowchart\Basic Flowchart Shapes (US units).vss"

' Change this constant to match your choice of location and file name.
Const SAVENEWFILE = "C:\Simpleflowchart.vsd"

' Start point measured from the bottom left corner.
dblXLocation = 4.25
dblYLocation = 8.5

vApp = New Visio.Application()
'Create a new document; note the empty string.
vDoc = vApp.Documents.Add("")
vStencil = vApp.Documents.OpenEx(TEMPLATEPATH, 4)

For iCount = LBound(aryValues) To UBound(aryValues) - 1
vFlowChartMaster = vStencil.Masters(aryValues(iCount, 0))
vToShape = vApp.ActivePage.Drop(vFlowChartMaster, _
dblXLocation, dblYLocation)
vToShape.Text = aryValues(iCount, 1)
If Not vFromShape Is Nothing Then
If vConnectorMaster Is Nothing Then
vConnectorMaster = vStencil.Masters("Dynamic Connector")
End If
vConnector = vApp.ActivePage.Drop(vConnectorMaster, 0, 0)
vBeginCell = vConnector.Cells("BeginX")
vBeginCell.GlueTo(vFromShape.Cells("AlignBottom"))
vEndCell = vConnector.Cells("EndX")
vEndCell.GlueTo(vToShape.Cells("AlignTop"))
vConnector.SendToBack()
End If
vFromShape = vToShape
vToShape = Nothing
dblYLocation = dblYLocation - 1.5
Next
vDoc.Pages(1).Name = "Flowchart Example"
Try
' Delete the previous version of the file.
Kill(SAVENEWFILE)
Catch
End Try
vDoc.SaveAs(SAVENEWFILE)
vDoc.Close()
vApp.Quit()
vDoc = Nothing
vApp = Nothing
GC.Collect()
End Sub
End Module