Visio .vsdx Unwanted Behavior: Why is User-Defined Shape Value Truncated to 0.00E0 from 1.00E-7?

1
votes

Problem. A user-defined shape value is unexplainably truncated to 0.00E0 in some (but not all) shapes when saved as a .vsdx-formatted drawing.

Desired Outcome.The original (correct) shape value is 1.00E-7 when saved as a .vsd drawing and should be the value for the .vsdx drawing.

Observation. In Visio 2013 + 2016, when a .vsd drawing with a "bus" shape is saved, closed, and opened as a .vsdx drawing, the user-defined shape value for failure rate changes from a numerical value of 1.00E-7 to 0.00E0. This behavior does not occur with every shape. For example, the failure rate for "Bus, substation" remains a constant numerical value of 2.05E-6 when the drawing is saved, closed, and opened in .vsdx format.

If the precision of the failure rate is increased to 1.001E-7, the failure rate is retained as 1.001E-7 when saved, closed, and opened as a .vsdx drawing.

In addition to the failure rate changing for "Bus" on the drawing, it also changes for "Bus" in the stencil even though the stencil is not editable ... which is really puzzling!

Workaround. A workaround for the problem is to enclose the failure rate in quotes in the Shapesheet in both the drawing shape and stencil master. When the failure rate is in quotes, the value is retained after saving, closing, and opening the .vsdx drawing.

Explanations for this behavior are encouraged. Thank you.

2
visioshapesheet
Hi, in this user-defined cell you use set value or formula ? - Surrogate
@Surrogate I set the value of the user-defined cell (not the formula). - PatMTech
Please look this gif !Truncation in cell - Surrogate
I set value 1e-7 in cell Value, in this cell I see 0. In cell Prompt I set reference to cell Value. And first time we can see value 1e-7 in this cell. But when I just select cell Value and press Enter key. Value in this cell Value changed to 0.0000 and value in cell Prompt changed to 0 - Surrogate

2 Answers

0
votes

You also can store your values in Shape Data section. In this section values can have various type of data: string, number, duration etc For number type user can select format with float point and set how many digits after zero he need to use ! Use number type You can see in my GIF that in ShapeData window (at left side) values shown correctly, but in ShapeSheet in this row you see value 0. And in user-defined cell which show value of shape data (prop.row_2) you also can see correct value !

0
votes

I try wrap values in cell with quotes. In this case "values" in these cells not truncated and correctly calculated like at this gif. No truncated May be this not best way, but it works !