Controlling Connections with Glue

Glue is what keeps connectors attached to shapes. When a connector is glued to a shape, Visio displays the connector’s endpoints in red. By default, Visio can glue shapes to guides and 1 D shapes and connectors to connection points. However, you can prevent Visio from connecting shapes with glue, and you can specify other points where Visio can glue shapes, with the options in the Snap & Glue dialog box, as Figure 3-17 shows. For example, you can also glue connectors to the edges of a shape.

Figure 3-17: Choose Tools, Snap & Glue to control the glue settings that Visio uses when you connect shapes.

Follow these steps to prevent Visio from connecting shapes with glue:

1. Choose Tools, Snap & Glue.

2. Under Currently Active, clear the Glue check box.

3. Click OK.

Follow these steps to specify where Visio can glue shapes:

1. Choose Tools, Snap & Glue.

2. Under Glue To, select the options you want from the following:

   • Shape Geometry Select this check box to glue 1-D shapes to any point on a shape’s edge.

   • Guides Select this check box to glue 1-D and 2-D shapes to guides.

   • Shape Handles Select this check box to glue 1-D shapes to the selection handles on another shape.

   • Shape Vertices Select this check box to glue 1-D shapes to the vertices on another shape.

   • Connection Points Select this check box to glue 1-D shapes to the connection points on another shape.

Note

The options you specify in the Snap & Glue dialog box affect all the pages in your drawing file.

Glue in the ShapeSheet Window

In case you want to create your own shapes or are just curious, Visio records the type of glue that’s used in the GlueType cell of a connector’s ShapeSheet. Glue type corresponds to the connection type. For example, a point-to-point connection uses point-to-point, or static, glue. A shape-to-shape connection uses dynamic glue. When you reconnect shapes using a different type of connection, you change the value of the GlueType cell. A value of 0 means static glue; a value of 3 means dynamic glue.