How to: Programmatically Add Shapes to a Visio Document

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.

Adding 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.

  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("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."
  

  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(@"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.";
  

See Also

Tasks

How to: Programmatically Copy and Paste Shapes in a Visio Document

Concepts

Visio Object Model Overview

Working with Visio Shapes

Other Resources

Visio Solutions