Creating Visio Rack Mount Shapes

Using Visio to create shapes for CCTV requires frequent use of 19″ rack mount layouts but getting them to lock in place correctly can be a challenge.

While making a 19″ device is easy enough, I was having troubles making them snap and lock to the predefined rack spacing when I was placing them. I knew it was possible because other vendors shapes would snap and lock to the end points in the rack easily – But how?

When I looked at other peoples shapes, I could see that across the base was a single line that fitted exactly in the rack and snapped to the connector points.

After some searching I found the answer on this site was to great 1D shape as a group and place your design inside the group.

Creating a 1D shape for the end points

There are several steps involved in creating the endpoints.

First we need to create a new shape master and name it. This will require you have an open stencil with editing enabled.
Microsoft Visio has a standard scale for rack diagrams of 1:20 so change your drawing scale to this on the File > Page Setup > Drawing Scale tab.
Next we edit the new shape by double clicking it in the stencil window and draw a horizontal line that is exactly 19″ long.

The next step is the one that is not at all obvious.

Select the line you just created and convert it to a group – Just a group of just one item – this is the critical bit!
Next right click the new group and select Format > Behaviour and change it from a 2D Box to a 1D Line as per the example in the image.

Now something I had no idea you could do with a group

In the EDIT menu select Open Group. This will open a new window in Visio
In this window you can draw your rack shape or paste an existing one in. Use the original line as the reference for the bottom of the equipment. It will be the point that snaps to the equipment rack later.
Last step – delete the original line and close the group by clicking the close X in the usual way.
Close the new shape window, answering yes to save it.