Computer Aided Engineering Drawing DUET

Date: ________________

Lab # 01 Familiarization with Visio 2013 Environment

LEARNING OUTCOMES
Upon successful completion of the lab, students will be able to:
LO1: To become familiar with Visio Environment
LO2: To become familiar with Visio tools
LO3: To become Familiar with Visio Different Templates

Theory:

Microsoft Visio 2013 is a flexible software tool that allows users to create diagrams and charts,
providing an alternative to using traditional drawing software such as MS Paint. Microsoft
Visio is designed to translate complex information from text and tables into diagrams. Visio
diagrams facilitate communication by breaking down information and displaying it to be
understood at a glance.

Procedure:

Starting Visio 2013

Locate the Visio program in the Start Menu →All Programs → Microsoft Office → Microsoft
Visio 2013. As the program opens, a similar window to Figure 1 will appear.

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File Tab (Backstage)

The Backstage area is your Visio command center—a place to handle all your non-drawing
operations, such as:
• Starting new drawings and opening existing files
• Saving and printing files
• Customizing the Ribbon and the Quick Access Toolbar
• Reducing file size
• Removing sensitive information from documents before distribution
• Setting preferences and options
• Configuring AutoSave – adjust the Auto Recover time increment
• Cleaning up documents
• Change File Open/Save Location – File > Options > Advanced

Ruler & Grid

The top and left edges of the drawing area display the ruler. This allows you to keep perspective
when zooming in and out, and is particularly useful for scaled drawings such as office layouts. You
can pull horizontal and vertical guides out of the rulers to which shapes can be glued (snapped).
This makes it easy to keep a whole row of shapes lined up.

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The grid is helpful for quickly aligning shapes both visually and via snapping. Sometimes, graphics
on background pages obscure the grid.

To hide or view these visual guides – View tab > Show group > check boxes allow you to hide and
show the Ruler and Grid.

Multiple Drawing Windows

View tab > Windows group contains controls that you use to manage multiple windows, such as
multiple documents or multiple windows to the same document, even to the same page. You can
switch windows or arrange them.

Create a New Drawing:

From Templates – Visio 2013 Premium version allows you to apply 65 built-in templates, to apply
your own custom templates, and to search from a variety of templates available on Office.com.
Office.com provides a wide selection of popular Excel templates, including process diagrams,
network diagrams, and floor plans.

File tab > New > choose a template > select a Template Categories > click the category > click
the template that you want > click Create

With Sample Diagrams – File tab > New > In the Other Ways to Get Started section > click one
of the 5 Sample diagrams.

Blank Diagram – File > New > under Choose a Template, below Other Ways to Get Started >
Blank drawing > Create

From a Sample Drawing – File > New > In the Other Ways to Get Started area at the bottom of
the screen > click Sample Diagrams > From the Choose a Template panel > double-click Project
Timeline.

From an Existing Diagram – File > Open > locate the file > click Open

Visio templates are provided in two different sets of measurement units.

Metric - Drawings are sized using International Standards Organization (ISO) specified paper
sizes; the default size is usually A4. Metric templates also include other ISO drawing and paper
sizes. All measurements are in millimeters or other metric measurement units.

US Units - Diagrams created with US Units use the 8.5-by-11-inch, letter-sized paper that is
common in the United States and parts of Canada and Mexico. Templates created for US Units also
include additional drawing and paper sizes that are common in those countries. The default
measurement units are inches and feet.

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Visio-specific toolbar:
To do this Press

Switch the Format Painter tool on or off ( ). CTRL+SHIFT+P

Select the Pointer Tool ( ). CTRL+1

Select the Connector tool ( ). CTRL+3

Select the connection point tool CTRL+SHIFT+1

Select the text tool ( ). CTRL+2

Select the text box tool ( ). CTRL+SHIFT+4

Select the drawing tools
Select the Rectangle Tool ( ). CTRL+8
Select the Ellipse Tool ( ). CTRL+9
Select the Line Tool ( ). CTRL+6

Select the Arc Tool ( ). CTRL+7

Select the Freeform Tool ( ). CTRL+5

Select the Pencil Tool ( ). CTRL+4
Crop a picture
Select the Crop tool ( ). CTRL+SHIFT+2
Group, rotate, and flip shapes
Group the selected shapes. CTRL+G or CTRL+SHIFT+G
Ungroup shapes in the selected group. CTRL+SHIFT+U
Bring the selected shape to the front. CTRL+SHIFT+F
Send the selected shape to the back. CTRL+SHIFT+B
Rotate the selected shape to the left. CTRL+L
Rotate the selected shape to the right. CTRL+R
Flip the selected shape horizontally. CTRL+H
Flip the selected shape vertically. CTRL+J
Open the Align Shapes dialog box for the selected shape. F8
View drawing windows
To do this Press
Display the open drawing windows tiled vertically. SHIFT+F7
Display the open drawing windows tiled horizontally. CTRL+SHIFT+F7
Display the open drawing windows so that you can see the title of ALT+F7 or
every window. CTRL+ALT+F7

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Exercises:

1. List all the template and sub template available in Microsoft Visio.

2. Create a new template and connect two 2-d geometric shapes with Directional lines.

3. Try all shortcuts keys given above.

4. Design different Electrical circuits from your EDC textbook using basic electrical
subtempletes

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