Object-oriented shapes, inherit vs. copy?

I'm a long-time Visio user but generally just with simpler diagrams. Now
I'm doing some home remodel planning and I'd like to create shapes with
properties I can change.

I want to photograph a tile, then take that digital image & create a shape
with the tile's image as the entirety of the shape's interior. However, I'm
not sure which specific tile color I'm going to use so I'd like to be able
to photograph several tiles and "swap out" the tile images in my shapes.

When I use a given shape, I don't want just a copy of the shape object
placed on a drawing, I want an instance of the shape object placed there.

I'm playing with border tiles, field tiles (the predominant tiles used on
the floor), and accent tiles. I want to be able to change the tile pattern
photo for all field tiles, for instance.

Each instance of a shape should simply inherit a reference to the
characteristics for the shape. If I then decide I want a different image
for a particular shape, I change that shape's image and all instances of
that shape in use will automatically change to the new image.

Is this possible with Visio?

TIA.

On Sun, 21 Jan 2007 11:35:09 -0800, "Karl Perry"
<kaNOPerry DeleteThis @SPAMcablespeed.com> wrote:

>I'm a long-time Visio user but generally just with simpler diagrams. Now
>I'm doing some home remodel planning and I'd like to create shapes with
>properties I can change.
>
>I want to photograph a tile, then take that digital image & create a shape
>with the tile's image as the entirety of the shape's interior. However, I'm
>not sure which specific tile color I'm going to use so I'd like to be able
>to photograph several tiles and "swap out" the tile images in my shapes.
>
>When I use a given shape, I don't want just a copy of the shape object
>placed on a drawing, I want an instance of the shape object placed there.
>
>I'm playing with border tiles, field tiles (the predominant tiles used on
>the floor), and accent tiles. I want to be able to change the tile pattern
>photo for all field tiles, for instance.
>
>Each instance of a shape should simply inherit a reference to the
>characteristics for the shape. If I then decide I want a different image
>for a particular shape, I change that shape's image and all instances of
>that shape in use will automatically change to the new image.
>
>Is this possible with Visio?

When a shape is dragged from the stencil onto your diagram a master is
created in the Document Stencil and the shape on your drawing is an
instance of that master. Dragging the same shape again creates a
second instance of the same master. If you look in the Document
Stencil (menu File -> Shapes -> Show Document Stencil) you will sss
the masters)
Now if you edit the masters in the document stencil you can update all
instances of that master.


--
Regards, Paul Herber, Sandrila Ltd. http://www.pherber.com/
http://www.sandrila.co.uk/