Andy Blackwell

Visio 2000 Technical offers improved integration with office products and more CAD functionality.

Visio software products have always been associated with business graphics such as flow diagrams but in the last few years have moved into the more professional 2D CAD market with the addition of the label ‘technical’.

Visio Technical 2000 Edition is the latest incarnation of the 2D CAD orientated software but is described as easy to use with no long learning curve associated with the more than traditional CAD software and is highly integrated with Microsoft software. Considering that Microsoft has acquired Visio for $1.3 billion the degree of integration comes as no surprise.

Installation Issues
Visio Technical 2000 Edition is compatible with Windows 95, 98, NT and Windows 2000, yet to be released at time of writing. In fact there is a positive advantage of installation under Windows 2000 called roaming user support giving immediate access to personal documents and customized work environment from any workstation on a network.

The installation of Visio 2000 Technical Edition is unlike most other software in that it is a two-stage affair. Firstly a Microsoft Windows System Updater which installs new Microsoft components such as VBA 6.0 and Data Access 2.1. After the reboot the rest of the Installation is fairly standard.

I elected to install the custom option and could then pick extra components in a mini Explorer window. Another useful feature is the required disk space and installation size indicators. After the file copying process is complete you are asked to register the software online and then the program is ready to use without any rebooting of the computer. I will say that I did have problems installing the software but this was a pre-production CD created on a CD writer and Visio were very helpful at solving the problem.

SmartShapes
On opening the software you are given the option of starting a new drawing or opening an existing drawing. On choosing to create a new drawing type, you are presented with a rather smart dialog box with lots of different drawing template graphics under each main category such as building services or map etc. On picking one of these templates the main interface opens complete with all the appropriate SmartShapes.

SmartShapes are pre-drawn symbols that can be dragged onto the drawing sheet to build up your drawing. They are inserted automatically at the correct size for the type of drawing and the specified scale. There are literally hundreds of SmartShapes in Visio Technical 2000 and they have a built in intelligence in that if the shape is an office chair the software will prevent you from resizing beyond the industry standard size.

These shapes can be easily customized to behave, as the user requires. Altering the custom behavior of the shape is achieved by a simple right click on the shape and then selecting the custom properties entry.

These SmartShapes are far more prolific and have more functionality than the ones built into the Autodesk Actrix product, which in my view, is way behind Visio Technical 2000 Edition.

Interface
The main interface has been simplified, compared to the previous release, and is now very similar to those of the Microsoft Office 2000 suite of applications. This should suit users as most are already familiar with these toolbars. The toolbars can be customized very easily in respect of their position and content.

The software has a multipage environment where pages can be added and are tabbed just the same as an Excel spreadsheet. The multi document interface means that you can have more than one drawing open at any one time.

The interface is split up into several main items as follows: -

SmartShapes Stencil area
This part of the screen allows you to insert your SmartShapes into your drawing. It lists all available shapes for the type of drawing you have decided to draw from the new drawing type dialog at startup.

Drawing Explorer Window
This area enables you to examine the contents of your drawing and either add, delete or edit your document such as pages, styles, masters, fill patterns, line patterns and line ends.

Size and Position Window
This area of the interface lists the size and position of any highlighted shape on your drawing page. Any item in the size and position window can be edited to move, resize, rotate, and stretch the highlighted shape.

Pan and Zoom Window
This window allows you to navigate around your drawing sheet by zooming into an area and then panning around.

Custom Properties Window
This area enables you to add custom properties to any of the SmartShapes in the drawing. Custom properties are data that can be stored as part of the shape and then exported to a database. This feature is similar to the AutoCAD attribute facilities but has more options for adding different types of data such as a string, boolean, lists and dates to name but a few.

Help
The help system is now HTML based and uses Internet Explorer 5 system files which are automatically installed but will not affect your default browser. One unusual feature of the help system is the Answer Works natural-language query system, which basically means that you can type a question into the help system in plain english and software will analyze the question and come up with the most appropriate answer.

Versatile Development
As far as software development is concerned Visio has included built in support for Visual Basic 6.0 programming environment allowing the creation of tailored applications and a forth generation ActiveX automation platform giving the application developer more power and flexibility.

Conclusions
For people who want to create professional looking drawing with the least amount of effort and without breaking the bank of course, Visio Technical 2000 Edition is going to be for you.

At an approximate street price of US$399 it’s a lot of software for your money. Compared to the Autodesk Actrix product which is slightly cheaper, I found Visio 2000 had more features and was better integrated within the Microsoft office suite. There is no difference in the extent of CAD integration with both products importing native AutoCAD files equally well.

This really is a very accomplished piece of software, which was easy to learn, and has some really good office integration.

Andy Blackwell

www.visio.com