35

Is there any chance to prevent MS Visio (preferably 2010) connectors from routing when a text block is placed on top of it? I want to achieve the effect as if the text block is on the upper layer, above the shapes and connectors, but that the layers are completely separate (not affecting each other's layout).

Is that possible?

Hennes
  • 64,768
  • 7
  • 111
  • 168
Kornelije Petak
  • 2,062
  • 3
  • 21
  • 24

6 Answers6

38

Sounds like you need to change connector re-routing. I think the option you want is "Never re-route".

Firstly (if you haven't already) you need the Developer tab. Go to File|Options|Customize Ribbon and turn on"Developer" in the list of tabs.

Now select the shape you want and in Developer|Behaviour go to the Placement tab and select 'Do not layout and route around' in the Placement behaviour drop down. That should do it.

enter image description here

Rhys Gibson
  • 4,548
  • 3
  • 41
  • 45
  • 3
    This link is dead (a nice example of why stackexchange sites discourage answers that don't actually answer the question, but just link to the answer) – Abacus Apr 07 '15 at 18:25
  • Is there any way to do this for ALL shapes? Its one of the most annoying things that keeps me wanting to move back to the non-Visio alternatives... – Daniel Jul 22 '19 at 08:50
  • I need the same option in Word. When I move shapes around, the connectors reroute in a funny way. Every time I fix this issue, then as soon as I touch the shape, all connectors will reroute. This is a very annoying behavior. Can you help me, please? – tarekahf Apr 28 '20 at 21:33
9

Layering and grouping never seemed to make a difference for me (it still rerouted the connectors anyway), but changing the routing behavior of the placed object did. For Visio 2010 and 2013, the Behavior dialog is unfortunately and unnecessarily hidden by default. You have to customize the ribbon (File > Options > Customize Ribbon or just right-click on the Ribbon > Customize Ribbon), click the check mark next to the Developer item in the right-most tree view to enable it, and click OK. Then select the shape you want to layer before and behind, click Behavior on the ribbon (Developer>Shape Design>Behavior), and on the Placement tab in the Placement behavior drop-down list choose Do not lay out and route around.

Joel B
  • 1,195
  • 3
  • 13
  • 19
Dwayne Robinson
  • 216
  • 2
  • 3
  • You even included the location of each option and where to click! I have to finish this Visio in 15 minutes so you just saved my butt! :-) – Moby Disk Aug 20 '15 at 16:48
  • This resolved the issue for me as well, although I had one more problem. If you are finding the Placement tab greyed out you need to set the Interaction Style on the Behaviour tab to Box (2-dimensional). This should enable the Placement tab. – Gibsnag Oct 17 '16 at 10:11
1

Recommend that the “Shape can split connectors” box is un-ticked in the Behaviours tab (of the behaviours dialogue box) so that dropping a shape on a connector does not re-route the connector and possibly shapes as well.

John Maton
  • 11
  • 1
1

Typically what I do is add meta information like that to its own layer and then group and lock the layer. At that point Visio just thinks its drawing on a blank canvas again and won't attempt to route the connectors anymore.

Cheers! ~Chris

C0D3M0NK3Y
  • 575
  • 3
  • 9
0

Very helpful comment from @Gibsnag about enabling the Behavior/Placement/Placement Behavior drop-down box. To get to it, open Developer/Behavior: Visio Ribbon Bar - Developer/Behavior Then, if the Placement Behavior drop-down is greyed out: enter image description here go back to the Behavior tab and select the Box (2-dimnensional)option: enter image description here

AFK
  • 101
  • 2
0

In the Visio Developer menu Behavior dialog, rather than switch the connector Behavior tab Interaction style, you might prefer leaving it as Line (1-dimensional), and then in the Connector tab change Line routing Reroute from Freely to something more restrictive, like Never.

Dan Konigsbach
  • 1