convert Visio stencil

[inetd]

I've got a ton of Visio Shapes that have to come over to Graffle. Save as xml and import? Isn't there something that would not lose all the resolution/detail?

This is a constant headache with Graffle - baseline compatibility with Visio. Ever seen the size of an XML file? - about 8x - and it still doesn't catch all the info.

Yes, I purchased Graffle, but have to carry two laptops with me - a Mac for Graffle, and a PC for Visio.

[sunshine]

100% agree. Visio compatibility is a big component of the Pro price tag. Improved Viso support is very much required.

Imagine buying OmniPlan (when it's released) then discovering that it only partially supports MS Project files...

[magir]

I guess the problem also exist with the Visio Converter available at http://www.conceptdraw.com/en/visio/ but at least it partly allows mass conversion.

Or am I mistaken that VSS files are simply renamed VSD files? I'd also like to convert a few simple stencils to Visio, sadly the Online Conversion service seems to take a while until the file is sent. Anyone experience with this or other services?

[Perry Lund]

I would like to report any sort of success with Visio stencils, but I can not find much to talk about.

I used Visio 2003 on a PC to open some Extreme Networks Alpine stencils. I then created a new document and placed each individual stencil. I saved it as a Visio XML document. I moved it ot the Mac and opened it in OmniGraffle 4.1.2.

The results are that objects may show up, while others are invisible. The text is usually mangled terribly in all the stencil objects.

In the next attempt, I copied each Visio stencil object from Visio 2003 to Word 2003. I saved the Word file and moved it to the Mac. I opened it in Word X on my Mac. Most of the solid parts of the objects look fine. Smaller object details are often skewed. The text is a total loss; Word translates it to be larger and stretched out over the stencil object.

So basically, any complicated object in Visio stencils can not be moved to OmiGraffle on the Macintosh. What a shame that no one has a method to move these Visio stencils over to the Mac and OmniGraffle.

:confused: :(

[Perry Lund]

I want to give credit to the follow person and website for a solution that works, but requires a lot of effort. Scott Lowe has a blog entry that gives a process that is useful in making the conversion to OmniGraffle stencils.

http://blog.scottlowe.org/2007/01/18/networking-diagramming-on-the-mac/

Here’s the process I’m using:

1. Place a single item from a Visio stencil onto a blank Visio diagram and save that diagram as a PNG image. (Override the default screen resolution to custom resolution of say 400dpi.)

2. Move the PNG image to my Mac and copy the contents of the PNG to the clipboard. OR drag the PNG directly onto an open OGP document.

3. Paste the image into a stencil in OGP. Tweak the size, connection points, etc., until satisfied. Move into a OGP stencil file and save occasionally.

4. Repeat as needed.

[sylencer]

Hello,

I, too, want to use stencils from Visio in OmniGraffle, especially from Cisco. So far I found some which were converted by others, but I want to convert those I need ;o)

I have access to Visio, so opening and exporting is no problem, but I have not yet found a suitable file format to export from Visio (as vector graphics, of course) and to import in OmniGraffle.

Can anyone give hints?