· By default, Visio 2003 setup removes previous installations of Visio 2002 and Visio 2000. To keep Visio 2000 or Visio 2002 on the same machines as Visio 2003, you must choose Customize in the Type of Installation dialog box, and then in the Previous Version of Visio dialog box, choose Keep All Previous Versions.

· If you run a previous version of Visio and then run Visio 2003, or if you run Visio 2003 and then run a previous version, Visio may display a dialog box at startup. This is normal. Wait for the auto-repair process to complete, and then Visio will run normally.

Note If you originally installed Visio 2002 from a CD, have the CD available so that the auto-repair process can complete successfully.

· The first time each user launches Visio, a file named content.dat is created in that user’s AppData directory. Uninstalling Visio does not delete this user-specific file.

· Uninstalling Visio does not uninstall the following registry key, which is used by Visual Studio 6.0: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\DevStudio\6.0\Addins\VisioUMLSolution.UMLVC60.1\

· For advanced Deployment topics, see the Visio Resource Kit information, included in the Office Resource Kit at: http://www.microsoft.com/office/ork

Working with Microsoft Office Visio 2003

Starting Visio 2003

Click Start, point to Programs, point to Microsoft Office, and then click Microsoft Office Visio 2003.

Customer Experience Improvement Program

Visio 2003 implements the Customer Experience Improvement Program. Two days after installation, a prompt will appear in your system tray, asking if you want to participate in this program and describing the program in detail. By choosing to participate, you will permit the collection of anonymous data that can help improve the quality, reliability, and performance of Visio 2003.

Help in Visio 2003

Visio 2003 features both local and Web-based Help. When you are connected to the Web, Help content is delivered to your desktop via the Internet, from Microsoft Office Online. When you are not connected to the Web, you see local (CHM-based) Help content.

New Visio templates with starter content and easy instructions to help you quickly create professional-looking drawings are available at Templates on Microsoft Office Online. You can find the templates by browsing or searching the Office Templates site, or by typing the name of the type of template you’d like to find, such as flowchart templates or office layout templates, in the Type a question for help box in Visio 2003.

A printable version of the Visio 2003 User Guide is available in PDF format on your product CD. The file is called Visiodoc.exe and contains a color cover and the body of the 65-page document in black and white. You can view and print the document using the Adobe Reader, available from http://www.adobe.com.

Choose Drawing Type window

· Performing any menu or toolbar action closes the Choose Drawing Type window after startup. To open the window again, on the File menu, point to New, and then click Choose Drawing Type.

· To scroll with your mouse wheel inside the Choose Drawing Type window, first click the background of the thumbnail area.

Zoom behavior

The maximum zoom level for large page sizes has been reduced in Visio 2003. You may only be able to zoom to 400% or 800% on large drawings.

Pasting or embedding objects

· Visio limits the size of an embedded object to approximately 12.9 inches (328 mm).

· Pasting an object into the Group Edit window may result in the shape being positioned outside of the current view.

Annotation

Shapes on a markup overlay are color-coded by reviewer. Changes to the fill, line, or text colors do not appear on the overlay page, but will appear if the marked-up shape is subsequently pasted onto the original drawing page.

Sample files

· Sample files for Visio 2003 are no longer shipped on the product CD, but you can download them from Microsoft Office Online. Search on the keyword “Visio sample diagrams”. You can also find them through the new Visio Diagram Gallery. On the Visio Help menu, click Diagram Gallery, and then click Sample Diagrams.

· All sample files (data files and Visio drawings) are covered by this disclaimer:

The example companies, organizations, products, domain names, e-mail addresses, logos, people, places, and events depicted herein are fictitious. No association with any real company, organization, product, domain name, e-mail address, logo, person, places, or events is intended or should be inferred.

ShapeSheet windows

The default setting for displaying ShapeSheets now opens each ShapeSheet in the same window. To view multiple ShapeSheet windows, point to Options on the Tools menu, click the Advanced tab, and then clear the Open each ShapeSheet in the same window check box.

Autorecovery

The AutoRecovery feature in Visio 2003 is not turned on by default. To turn on the feature, point to Options on the Tools menu, and then on the Save tab, select the Save AutoRecover info every : XX minutes check box. (This feature can also be turned on by an administrator as part of an installation deployment policy.)

Backward-compatibility limitations

Visio 2002-compatible XML files

Microsoft Visio 2002 introduced a new ‘XML for Visio’ format for Visio drawings (VDX), stencils (VSX), and templates (VTX). This format was a native, full-fidelity XML alternative to the binary (VSD, VSS, VST) format. In Visio 2002 you could save and open any drawing, stencil, or template in this ‘XML for Visio’ format. You could also set the default Save format to Visio XML.

In Visio 2003, both the ‘XML for Visio’ schema (format) and the binary format have been enhanced and extended to support new features. In this release, backward compatibility using the XML format is limited to Open. This means that you can open Visio 2002 XML drawings, stencils, and templates, but cannot Save As to the Visio 2002 XML format. To save a drawing, stencil, or template so it can be opened in Visio 2002, you must use the Save As Visio 2002 Drawing, Stencil, or Template commands. The Visio 2002 user can then convert to the XML format if needed.

Ink objects

When a Visio 2003 document containing ink objects is saved in Visio 2002 format, the ink objects appear as Windows metafiles in Visio 2002. Ink objects cannot be edited in Visio 2002 because there was no support for ink or ink tools in that product. Ink objects created in Visio 2003, saved in Visio 2002, and then reopened in Visio 2003 retain their original ink properties.

Saving to Visio 2002 format

Visio 2003 documents saved to Visio 2002 format and then opened in Visio 2002 open without any stencils showing. On machines with both Visio 2003 and Visio 2002 installed, this action may result in an error message stating that the stencils are in the wrong file format. You can ignore the error message.

Other compatibility issues

Other issues about compatibility between previous versions and Visio 2003 are known to exist. For descriptions of these issues and workaround steps, visit the Microsoft Product Support Services Web site at: http://support.microsoft.com. Once there, search the Visio 2003 Knowledge Base with the keywords Visio compatibility.

CAD file handling and display

· The Save functionality for DWG and DXF files is much enhanced over prior releases. Each Visio entity is now accurately mapped to the best possible representative entity in the DWG and DXF file formats. This means you can easily edit the resulting CAD entities.

· The Save as AutoCAD Drawing (*.dwg), Save as AutoCAD Interchange (*.dxf), and Convert CAD Drawing Object operations can now record errors and warnings in a common log file, whose default location is c:\documents and settings\<username>\Local settings\application data\microsoft\visio\temp. If an error occurs during file conversion, the conversion continues and an error is written to the log, so you can view any modifications made during the conversion.

· Progress indicators have been added for Open AutoCAD Drawing (*.dwg,*.dxf), Save As AutoCAD Drawing (*.dwg), Save as AutoCAD Interchange (*.dxf), and Convert Drawing Object operations.

· Upon opening an AutoCAD drawing file, you will see a view of the CAD drawing on the Visio drawing page. To access the CAD Drawing Properties dialog box, select the CAD drawing, right-click it, point to CAD Drawing Object, and then click Properties. On the General and Layer tabs, you can modify the layer display, change the drawing scale, size, and position, or make other modifications.

· DWG and DXF drawings are now rendered in full CAD drawing extents upon Open and Insert. To crop and pan the image, select the drawing, right-click it, and select Crop Tool. Accept the warning message, which allows unlocking of the size and position of the CAD drawing, and then drag any of the selection handles on the CAD drawing to crop the view frame, or click and drag within the CAD drawing window to pan or shift the drawing position. When done, click the Pointer Tool and resume your work. To prevent accidental changes to the image, right-click the CAD drawing, navigate to the Properties dialog box, and select the Lock size and position check box.

· Metafiles inserted in a Visio document, including the new Ink object, are not supported if the document is saved as an AutoCAD drawing.

· The MicroStation CAD file format (DGN) is no longer supported in this release. Opening a Visio 2002 file with an embedded DGN file will not result in any loss of data, but the image will not be rendered and a warning message will appear. To view the file in Visio 2003, open it first in Visio 2002, right-click the image to convert the DGN file to Visio shapes, save the file, and then re-open it in Visio 2003.

· Several other issues are known to exist in the Open, Insert, and Save As DWG and DXF features. For descriptions of these issues and workaround steps, visit the Microsoft Product Support Services Web site at: http://support.microsoft.com. Once there, search the Visio 2003 Knowledge Base with the keyword DWG.

Database Wizard

The Database Wizard links Visio shapes and drawings to ODBC data sources. It allows data to be copied to and from Visio shapes and tables in these data sources. The Database Wizard does not support the following:

· ODBC Strings longer than 64K characters to be stored in Visio cells and fields.

· Database Key fields of the following type:
SQL_TIMESTAMP

· Updating of replication IDs in Microsoft Access.

· Updating of Timestamp fields in Informix.

· ODBC Binary fields longer than 32K to be stored in Visio cells and fields.

In addition, Visio stores numeric values as double floating point numbers, so numbers with a large degree of precision will be stored as approximate values.

The Database Wizard sample "dbsample.mdb"

This file is a sample Microsoft Access 2000 database containing tables of data and queries which create views and summaries of the data in the tables.

The Database Wizard and Microsoft Excel

The Excel ODBC driver does not support deletion of rows in Excel. As a workaround, the Database Wizard marks rows as deleted by setting text fields to #ROW DELETED# and numeric fields to 0. This means that 0 and #ROW DELETED# are treated as an invalid key for Wizard operations such as UPDATE, SELECT, REFRESH, etc.

The Database Wizard can create tables in Microsoft Excel files through the define table option. Tables created in Excel 5.0 or later are stored on separate sheets in the Excel file, and the records are marked as a named range. To access an existing table in an Excel file via ODBC, you need to create a named range in the Excel file which includes all of the rows and columns in the table. Note The text in the first row of the named range is used as the table column names.

Import/export filters

Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG/SVGZ)

In this release, we have added support for a Web graphics standard published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The standard is called Scalable Vector Graphics, or SVG. Visio 2003 supports version 1.0, which became a standard in 2000. You can learn more about the SVG standard at http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG. You will also find some sample SVG files and links to other software products supporting SVG at this site. Visio 2003 supports both the uncompressed (SVG) and compressed (SVGZ) versions of the format in Open, Insert, and Save As.

SVG feature descriptions

· Open > Scalable Vector Graphics Drawing (.svg, .svgz) – This command loads the selected SVG 1.0 file, translates it into a Visio drawing, and then opens that drawing in Visio for editing. SVG symbols become Visio masters. SVG uses and paths become Visio shapes. Virtually all elements in the SVG drawing not listed in the unsupported features or limitations sections, below, are editable in Visio.

· Insert > Picture > From File > Scalable Vector Graphics Drawing (.svg, .svgz) – This command imports the selected SVG 1.0 file, translates it into a Visio drawing group, and then inserts that group into the center of the current Visio page as the current selection. You can then place the group as you wish.

· Save As > Scalable Vector Graphics Drawing (*.svg) – This command translates the current Visio page (if no shapes are selected) or the current selection set into SVG 1.0 and then saves the drawing to the file name and location specified.

· Save As > Scalable Vector Graphics Drawing - Compressed (*.svg) – This command does the same as the Save As SVG (above) command, except that the SVG drawing is saved in compressed SVG format. This compression is defined as part of the SVG standard.

· Save As Web Page (output format set to SVG) – If you use Save As Web Page, you can choose the format in which graphics for the Web page will be saved (see the Advanced tab of the Save As Web Page dialog launched by clicking the Publish button). SVG has been added to the list of possible graphics formats. Note that Save As Web Page also supports saving multiple pages at once. In this case, each page in the Visio document is saved as a separate SVG file. The SVG files are saved in the subfolder named after the Web page name (.htm) specified (e.g. <DrawingName>_Files).

Known Issues with SVG Import/Export

· Several issues are known to exist in the Open, Insert, and Save As SVG and SVGZ features. For descriptions of these issues and workaround steps, visit the Microsoft Product Support Services Web site at: http://support.microsoft.com. Once there, search the Visio 2003 Knowledge Base with the keyword SVG.

SVG features not supported

· Scripting

· Animation

· Interactivity other than hyperlinks

· Aural style sheets (sound)

· XSLT style sheets

· Color profiles

· CSS cascading rules. (Internal cascading style sheets and selectors are supported in both import and export. External style sheets are also be supported, but on import only.)

· Rotated glyphs in text elements

· Conditional processing

· Masking and compositing

· Anchors referring to URI fragments or SVG views

· Metadata, except as defined in the Visio Extensions to SVG schema

Visio Extensions to SVG

SVG is based on XML, and a Visio drawing saved as SVG has additional information that (in XML terms) adheres to a namespace-qualified extended data schema. The extended data defined in the schema improves the fidelity of Visio drawings that are saved as SVG and then re-opened in Visio. In general, these extensions make the re-opened drawings more editable by preserving drawing features that do not yet exist in the SVG standard. The following drawing features are preserved when you save a drawing as SVG and then re-open it in Visio:

Drawing Structure

· Drawing layers and shape membership in these layers

· Shape shadows

· Background and reviewer markup pages

· Page/group/shape/sub-shape structures (hierarchies)

Graphics Formatting

· Fill styles (foreground/background color, pattern, shadow type)

· Line styles (line style, pattern, end types and sizes)

· Image settings (brightness, contrast, gamma, transparency, blur)

Text Layout

· Text box properties (box location, box size, text alignment, margins)

· Text wrapping properties

· Tab stops

· Bulleted and numbered list properties

Foreign Objects

· Images (preserving image effects not supported in SVG)

· Graphic metafiles

· OLE objects

Non-Graphic Properties and Semantics

· Visio custom properties

· Visio user cell data

SVG import limitations

· Visio gradients are more limited than those allowed in SVG. Parameterized linear gradients in SVG are mapped to the nearest of four pre-defined linear gradients in Visio. Parameterized radial gradients in SVG are mapped to the nearest of five pre-defined radial gradients in Visio.

· SVG pattern elements are mapped to custom fill or line patterns in Visio 2003.

· Line pattern styles (defined through dash arrays) are mapped to pre-defined Visio line patterns if a close match exists, otherwise a Visio custom fill pattern is created and referenced.

· Font names for embedded fonts are imported. Font glyph information are not imported, as Visio retrieves glyphs from Windows for any fonts that exist on the system and uses font substitution for fonts not present.

· All SVG line properties that Visio supports are imported.

· Markers are mapped to pre-defined line ends in Visio if they were originally exported from Visio. Otherwise a Visio custom line end pattern is created and referenced.

· Visio does not support all of the TRef element types that are possible in SVG. Visio translates those that are supported.

· For TextPath elements, the text is imported and placed character by character (for visual fidelity), but the path definition is discarded because Visio does not support ‘text along a path.’

· SVG elements contained in a definition element are imported and mapped to the appropriate construct in Visio, if they are used in the drawing and are not listed as a limitation here or as an unsupported feature in the list below.

· Filter effects are supported only for raster image elements, and are limited to the subset of SVG filter effects that Visio supports for raster elements. These filter effects are:

o Brightness

o Contrast

o Gamma

o Transparency

o Blur

· Interactivity is supported only for hyperlinks.

SVG export limitations

· Visio custom fill patterns, custom line patterns, and custom line ends are not converted to SVG. Custom fill patterns are omitted, custom line patterns become continuous, and custom line ends are omitted.

· Font width scaling in Visio can be expanded or condensed by any point size between -1584.0 pt and 1584.0 pt. (to the nearest tenth of a point). This scaling is mapped to the closest of the predefined font-stretch attribute values in SVG. This results in visual fidelity differences where the closest predefined value is significantly different from the scaling in Visio.

· Visio allows text to be formatted with double-strikethrough. The resulting SVG contains only a single strikethrough as double-strikethrough is not supported by the standard.

· Visio allows text to be formatted with a double-underline. The resulting SVG contains only a single underline as double-underline is not supported by the standard.

· Underlines appear directly beneath superscripted text instead of remaining part of the original underline.

· Visio allows a text scaling range of 33% to 200%. SVG has a text scaling range of 68% to 173%. Values above or below the SVG range are mapped to 173% and 68%, respectively.

· In Visio, the direction of text scaling is different for text rendered horizontally than for text rendered vertically. SVG always scales text horizontally. In the case where the Visio drawing contains vertical text that has a scale applied to it, the exported SVG has the scale applied in the horizontal direction instead.

· Visio fill patterns are implemented as 8x8 PNG format raster images, so that the foreground and background transparencies can be set appropriately. Because these are raster images, these fill patterns do NOT scale when the drawing is scaled inside the SVG Viewer.

· Image filter effects in Visio are applied to the original image first, and then scaling is performed on the raster image (if necessary). In SVG, the image is first scaled, and then the filter effect is applied. For images that have been scaled, you may see a difference between the images from Visio and the ones in SVG.

· Visio has the denoise filter effect. This is NOT supported in SVG. The denoise filter effect is be applied to the raster image before it is exported to SVG.

Graphics import/export formats no longer supported

In Visio 2003 we have eliminated support for the following graphics formats:

· Adobe Illustrator (AI)

· ABC Flow Charter 2.0, 3.0, and 4.0 (AF2, AF3)

· CorelDRAW! 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0 and 7.0 (CDR)

· CorelFLOW (CFL)

· Computer Graphics Metafile (CGM)

· Corel Clipart Format (CMX)

· Bentley Microstation Drawing (DGN)

· MicroGrafx Designer 3.1 (DRW)

· MicroGrafx Designer 6.0 (DSF)

· Encapsulated PostScript (EPS)

· Interchange Graphics Exchange Standard (IGS)

· ZSoft PC Paintbrush (PCX)

· Macintosh PICT (PCT)

· PostScript (PS)

Working with Specific Types of Drawings in Microsoft Office Visio 2003

Organization charts

· When you duplicate a shape, you are creating a new shape. New organization chart shapes use the properties defined in the Options dialog box to determine the appearance of the shapes, including the shape size. To change an organization chart shape’s size, point to Options on the Organization Chart menu and then set the width and height values.

· Automatic positioning has been removed.

· You cannot use organization chart shape functionality outside of the organization chart template.

· When you open in Visio 2003 an organization chart created in Visio 2002, you are prompted to convert the drawing. If you choose not to convert it, the drawing opens with full visual fidelity, but cannot be used with organization chart functionality. If you choose to convert it, a new organization chart is created, with the following changes:

o The connectors may not be connected to the same connection points.

o The Re-Layout command returns everything to horizontal layout.

o Text formatting is lost for the organization chart shapes.

Brainstorming diagrams

You can export brainstorming diagram data to Microsoft Office Word 2003 and Microsoft Office Excel 2003, but not to earlier versions of Word or Excel.

Calendars

The Visio Calendar template supports only the Gregorian calendar format. It does not support other calendar formats, such as Arabic, Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, or Thai. If your Microsoft Outlook calendar format is set to one of these formats, Visio cannot import your calendar data and you will see an error message. To work around this limitation, change your Outlook calendar format to Gregorian and proceed with importing the data into Visio.

Timelines

· You cannot import Excel, text, or MPX files into a Visio timeline. You cannot export timeline information to Excel, text, or MPX files, or to Visio Gantt charts.

· You cannot rotate milestone/interval text.

· You cannot remove the dates from milestones/intervals.

· When a Visio 2002 timeline is opened in Visio 2003, it opens with full visual fidelity. However, you cannot drop milestones or intervals onto the 2002 timeline until after you convert it to Visio 2003. If you try to use any of the built-in timeline features (such as a right-mouse command) before you convert the, the conversion code launches and you see a message asking if you want to convert the drawing. If you click No, the drawing remains as is, and you can work with its shapes but with none of the built-in timeline behavior. If you click Yes, the drawing is converted to Visio 2003, with the following changes:

o Rotated text is no longer rotated.

o Chiseled shapes are converted to block shapes.

o Dagger milestones are converted to diamond milestones.

o If more than one type of text formatting was used in a milestone or interval, only the first formatting type is applied.

o Interval fill coloring is changed to the document default color.

o The short date and long date formats are replaced with the standard date format for the drawing language type. All other date formats are retained.

Network diagrams

The Network diagram templates have been significantly updated and improved for Visio 2003. The Basic Network template has an entirely new look and feel. The new Detailed Network Diagram template replaces the old Logical Network Diagram, and includes a revised shape set and updated graphics. In addition, a Rack Diagram template has been added.

The solution code behind the Directory Services templates has been removed in Visio 2003, so there is no auto-layout of directory shapes.

Business Process diagrams

The new Business Process category has been added to the Choose Drawing Type startup screen with new templates and stencils to support business diagramming for Six Sigma and ISO processes. These templates have been upgraded with a new look, and they support color schemes. Additional keyword support has been added to the Business Process shapes.

In the TQM diagram type, to access Color Schemes, on the Tools menu, point to Add-Ons, point to Visio Extras, and then click Color Schemes.

Web site maps

Pages with popup windows and other heavily-scripted pages may not display properly, or may even generate script errors, in the Interactive Discovery window. There is no workaround at this time. If you are asked to debug the current page, click No.

Some Web sites maintain current data for the user by including an identifier in the URL of any page displayed. This identifier can change simply by refreshing pages, or navigating away from, and then back to, the original page. Because Visio cannot differentiate between two pages that look the same but have different URL addresses, the same page will appear as two different links within the diagram.

Issues in Microsoft Office Visio Professional 2003

UML model diagrams

Associations do not have corresponding elements in the UML Model Explorer, and appear only on the drawing page

UML association shapes (relationships) appear only on the Visio drawing page, not in the UML Model Explorer tree view as other elements do. You cannot view, add, or delete associations from within the tree view; you can only manipulate them directly on the drawing page.

If you delete an association shape from one page in a drawing file, the relationship persists and can be viewed on other pages where shapes representing the associated elements have been placed. However, if you delete the only view of an association shape that represents a relationship between elements, then you have actually removed the relationship from the model.

If association shapes (relationship lines) between elements are removed from some pages in a drawing file, but are still present on other pages, you can show relationship lines for the associated classes on any page where shapes for the associated elements appear.

To view relationship lines for a class element

· Right-click the class element involved in an association, and then click Show Relationships.

To recover an association shape deleted by mistake

· On the Edit menu, click Undo Delete.

You can turn off the display of multiple relationship lines on the drawing page

Relationship lines automatically appear on the drawing page when multiple instances of the same class are dropped onto the page. For example, Class 1 and Class 2 shapes appear on the drawing page with a Binary Association line between them. If you then drag another Class 1 shape from the UML Model Explorer onto the drawing page, a second relationship line also appears, connecting the second Class 1 shape to the existing Class 2 shape. Dragging additional Class 1 or Class 2 shapes onto the page results in additional lines, causing confusion.

Relationship lines are designed to appear in this manner, because they represent the associations between the classes. However, you can reset a registry key to change this behavior, and then view relationship lines as needed by showing relationships.

To turn off the automatic display of additional relationship lines

1. Use the registry editor to go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\ Microsoft\Office\11.0\Visio\Solution\UML Solution.

2. For the string "Automatic Instance UML relationships," the initial value is 1. Change the value from 1 to 0.

To display additional relationship links

· Right-click a shape, and then click Show Relationships.

For more information, see the Readme item "Associations do not have corresponding elements in the UML Model Explorer, and appear only on the drawing page."

The position of labels for Association shapes can be unclear

Sometimes the labels for the text related to association shapes are not close enough to the corresponding lines on the diagram. You might not be able to tell which shape a label applies to, particularly when several lines connect to the same shape. Four labels can be associated with an association shape, each in its own text block:

· Name of the association shape

· Name of one end

· Name of the other end

· Text block for the multiplicity setting

To unlock and move text labels to make your diagrams more readable

1. Select the association shape with the label you want to move.

2. On the Window menu, click Show Shapesheet.

3. On the Protection section of the shape sheet, in the LockTextEdit cell, change the value from 1 to 0, and then press Enter. Changing this value allows the text to be moved and edited.

4. On the standard Visio toolbar, click the Text Block Tool.

5. Use the Text Block Tool to select the label (which is a subshape within the association shape), and then drag the label to where you want it in the diagram.

Qualifier attributes cannot be viewed on the drawing page

According to the UML 1.2 specification, qualifier associations are represented visually in a UML diagram with the various attributes listed inside a box shape. In Visio however, attributes of qualifiers can be viewed only in the properties pages for association ends.

To view qualifier attributes

1. Double-click an association shape with a small box at one end (the box indicates a qualified association). In the UML Association Properties dialog box, view the list under Association Ends.

2. Select the End Name that has the attributes you want to view, and then click Properties.

3. In the UML Association End Properties dialog box, under Categories, click Qualifier Attributes, and view details of the attributes.

Using Visio 2002 and Visio 2003 Visual Studio 6.0 UML reverse engineering add-ins

Visio 2002 and Visio 2003 UML reverse engineering add-ins for Visual Basic 6.0 (VB6) and Visual C++ 6.0 (VC6) cannot be used simultaneously on the same machine.

To use the Visio 2002 add-ins

1. Shut down all instances of Visio that are currently running.

2. Shut down all instances of Visual Studio 6.0 that are currently running.

3. Run Visio 2002. Note You may see an installation progress dialog at this point. This is normal behavior.

4. Close Visio 2002.

5. Register the desired add-in (umlvb.dll for Visual Basic 6.0; umlc.dll for Visual C++ 6.0) using regsvr32.exe included with Windows. (For more information regarding regsvr32.exe, please refer to Windows Help.)

6. Enable the Visio 2002 add-ins within Visual Basic 6.0 or Visual C++ 6.0 (see Note below).

7. Run Visual Basic 6.0 or Visual C++ 6.0.

To use the Visio 2003 add-ins

1. Shut down all instances of Visio that are currently running.

2. Shut down all instances of Visual Studio 6.0 that are currently running.

3. Run Visio 2003. Note You may see an installation progress dialog at this point. This is normal behavior.

4. Close Visio 2003.

5. Visio 2003 does not require you to register the add-ins as with Visio 2002.

6. Enable the Visio 2002 add-ins within Visual Basic 6.0 or Visual C++ 6.0 (see Note below).

7. Run Visual Basic 6.0 or Visual C++ 6.0.

Note To access Visio add-ins in Visual Basic 6.0, on the Add-Ins menu, click Add-In Manager. To access Visio add-ins in Visual C++ 6.0, on the Tools menu, point to Customize, and then click the Add-ins and Macro Files tab.

Error messages and warnings during reverse engineering from Visual Studio .NET to Visio UML

A number of error messages and warnings may appear in the Output window of Visual Studio .NET Enterprise Architect while reverse engineering source code into a Visio UML model. Some error messages indicate that the process has stopped, and a fix may be possible to get restarted. In other cases, a warning message indicates an issue with a specific code element, but the overall reverse engineering process continues.

The following error messages appear when the reverse engineering process stops. Once they’re fixed, you can restart the process.

· "Couldn't export the UML model to Visio."
Visual Studio cannot create a temporary file to store the model information. Check to make sure that the temp directory is writeable and that the local hard disk is not full.

· "Couldn't load the UML model into the Visio diagram."
A problem exists in your Visio installation. Check to see if Visio for Enterprise Architects is installed correctly, including the templates for UML modeling, and that you have the correct files for your locale (US or non-US).

· "Please select a single project or the solution for reverse engineering."
You can reverse engineer the entire solution or a single project, but not solution items or miscellaneous files.

· "Can't find one of the references for this project. Please make sure all references exist."
One of the references in a Visual Basic project is missing. Check the references to ensure that all the reference files physically exist in the location specified in the project.

The following warnings may appear.

· When either a naming conflict or other error has occurred, the follow message appears:
"There were warnings during reverse engineering."

Reverse engineering continues despite a warning message, but the element or member causing the problem may not be included in the UML model.

· Name clashes occur when a solution contains more than one C++ project with identical members, for example:

"Warning W0001: Name clash: Found 2 matches for CmyClass."

· Various situations can cause other errors for a given code element. A message then appears about the specific element that couldn't be reverse engineered to the UML model. For example:

"Couldn't reverse engineer a UML relationship."

"Couldn't reverse engineer an interface."

"Couldn't add the SolutionItems project to the solution."

Note To avoid warnings, make sure you compile your code before you reverse engineer. (In Visual Studio .NET, use Build Solution or Build Project on the Build menu before using Visio UML / Reverse Engineer on the Project menu).

Database model diagrams

Hyperlink fields set in a Microsoft Access database are not reverse engineered correctly

When reverse engineering a Microsoft Access database containing a table with a field set to the data type "Hyperlink," the hyperlink setting is not reflected in the database schema that Visio extracts. Instead, a hyperlink field from an Access database is converted to a memo field in the Visio Database Modeling solution.

This situation occurs because a hyperlink field is not a distinct data type in Access; a hyperlink field is actually a memo data type field with a hyperlink attribute flag set. Both the memo and hyperlink fields in Access are reverse engineered in Visio as the data type LONGCHAR.

To help identify Access hyperlink fields once the database schema is transferred to Visio, you can add a comment to the field in Access before starting the reverse engineering process. Comments in Access tables appear as notes in the Columns category of the Database Properties window in Visio.

The Sybase ODBC driver does not support reverse engineering of default values and primary key names

During the reverse engineering process of a Sybase database containing a table with a default value defined for one of its columns, the default value will not be reverse engineered. This is due to a limitation of the Sybase ODBC driver.

During the reverse engineering process of a Sybase database containing a table with a primary key, the actual primary key name is not reverse engineered due to a limitation of the Sybase ODBC driver. Instead, the physical name of the column appears in the form: <Table-name>_PK, a default name automatically created by Visio. This Physical Name can be viewed in the Database Properties window, under the Primary ID category.

Visio stops responding when you update from a database that was updated offline

If you change foreign keys in a model, choose to update with DDL only, and then update the database manually with the DDL, Visio will stop responding the next time you run a connected update on the database model and choose to refresh the changes that were already made (and updated via the DDL).

To avoid this issue, do either of the following:

· Reverse engineer the updated database into a new model.

· Choose not to refresh the changes that were already made in the model and database.

BiDi languages not supported

The Visio Database Modeling solution does not support Bi-Directional languages.

Issues for Developers

Searching in the Visio Automation Reference and ShapeSheet Reference

When you are working in the Microsoft Office Visio 2003 Drawing window or ShapeSheet window, you cannot use the Search for box in the Help task pane to search for terms in the Visio Automation Reference or the Visio ShapeSheet Reference. To search for these terms, you must be working in the Visio Visual Basic Editor window.

To open the Visual Basic Editor window from the Visio Drawing or ShapeSheet window, on the Tools menu, click Macros (if you are running in Developer Mode, click Add-Ons), and then click Visual Basic Editor. Alternatively, press ALT+F11.

To search for terms in the Automation and ShapeSheet references, on the Help menu in the Visual Basic Editor, click Microsoft Visual Basic Help, and then in the Search box, type the term you want to find and click Start Searching.

Visio Primary Interop Assemblies (PIAs)

System.Array Objects

In the Visio 2003 PIA, SAFEARRAY types in the Visio Object Model have been converted to a System.Array type. System.Array is the base class of all Visual Basic .NET arrays. A System.Array can represent anything a SAFEARRAY type can represent.

Note Using these generic arrays means that the array is now loosely typed and no longer strongly typed.

The CreateInstance method of the System.Array object allows you to control the bounds, dimension, and length of the array. You can access elements of a System.Array by using methods such as GetValue and SetValue. You can also get and set array elements by first casting the System.Array type to a strongly managed array of an appropriate type. You will not be able to do this type of casting with an array with non-zero lower bounds. This affects the SAFEARRAY types returned by Visio for the following properties and methods. In each case, Visio creates a one-dimensional SAFEARRAY with the lower bound equal to 1.

Event.GetFilterObjects

Event.GetFilterCommands

Event.GetFilterSRC

Document.SnapAngles

Document.EmailRoutingData

Application.AvailablePrinters

Visio ActiveX Control

Visio ActiveX control not supported in Microsoft Access 2002

The Visio ActiveX control is not supported in Microsoft Access 2002 until Microsoft Access 2002 SP3.

Difficulty merging with menus in Internet Explorer

Negotating menus is difficult in Internet Explorer (see Microsoft Knowledge Base article 193098 at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;193098). When negotiating menus with Internet Explorer, you may see two Help menus and sometimes two GoTo menus. It is recommended that you not depend on merging with the Internet Explorer menus; use pop-up menus on your UserDocument instead.

Visio COM add-ins used by Visio ActiveX controls embedded in Microsoft Office 2003 documents may not load properly

Visio COM add-ins may fail to load properly when used by a Visio ActiveX control embedded in an Office 2003 document. Instead of using a Visio COM add-in, implement your Visio solution code in a COM add-in for the host application. For example, if you are embedding the Visio ActiveX control in a Microsoft Office Word 2003 document, load a Word COM add-in and include your Visio solution code in that add-in. Note that this only applies to Microsoft Office 2003 and not to Microsoft Office XP applications.