How to: Programmatically add shapes to a Visio document

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Applies to: yesVisual Studio noVisual Studio for Mac

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You can add shapes to a Microsoft Office Visio document by retrieving the masters from a stencil and dropping the shapes on the active page.

For more information, see the VBA reference documentation for the Microsoft.Office.Interop.Visio.Documents.Add method, Microsoft.Office.Interop.Visio.Application.ActivePage property, and Microsoft.Office.Interop.Visio.Page.Drop method.

Add shapes to a Visio Document

To add shapes to a Visio document

  • With a document active, retrieve the masters from the Documents.Masters collection and drop the shapes on the active document. You can retrieve a master by using the index or master name.

    The following code example creates a blank Visio document, and then opens it with the Basic Shapes stencil docked. The code then retrieves several shapes and drops them on the active page.

    this.Application.Documents.Add("");

Visio.Documents visioDocs = this.Application.Documents;
Visio.Document visioStencil = visioDocs.OpenEx("Basic Shapes.vss",
    (short)Microsoft.Office.Interop.Visio.VisOpenSaveArgs.visOpenDocked);

Visio.Page visioPage = this.Application.ActivePage;

Visio.Master visioRectMaster = visioStencil.Masters.get_ItemU(@"Rectangle");
Visio.Shape visioRectShape = visioPage.Drop(visioRectMaster, 4.25, 5.5);
visioRectShape.Text = @"Rectangle text.";

Visio.Master visioStarMaster = visioStencil.Masters.get_ItemU(@"5-Point Star 7");
Visio.Shape visioStarShape = visioPage.Drop(visioStarMaster, 2.0, 5.5);
visioStarShape.Text = @"Star text.";

Visio.Master visioHexagonMaster = visioStencil.Masters.get_ItemU(@"Hexagon");
Visio.Shape visioHexagonShape = visioPage.Drop(visioHexagonMaster, 7.0, 5.5);
visioHexagonShape.Text = @"Hexagon text.";

    Me.Application.Documents.Add("")

Dim visioDocs As Visio.Documents = Me.Application.Documents
Dim visioStencil As Visio.Document = visioDocs.OpenEx("Basic Shapes.vss", CShort(Microsoft.Office.Interop.Visio.VisOpenSaveArgs.visOpenDocked))

Dim visioPage As Visio.Page = Me.Application.ActivePage

Dim visioRectMaster As Visio.Master = visioStencil.Masters("Rectangle")
Dim visioRectShape As Visio.Shape = visioPage.Drop(visioRectMaster, 4.25, 5.5)
visioRectShape.Text = "Rectangle text."

Dim visioStarMaster As Visio.Master = visioStencil.Masters("5-Point Star 7")
Dim visioStarShape As Visio.Shape = visioPage.Drop(visioStarMaster, 2.0, 5.5)
visioStarShape.Text = "Star text."

Dim visioHexagonMaster As Visio.Master = visioStencil.Masters("Hexagon")
Dim visioHexagonShape As Visio.Shape = visioPage.Drop(visioHexagonMaster, 7.0, 5.5)
visioHexagonShape.Text = "Hexagon text."

See also