4 Oct 2007
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| Should Network Equipment Shapes be 1D or 2D? | |
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For those of you who are familiar with the difference between 1D and 2D Visio shapes, please bear with us while we explain. It's very relevant to the way network equipment shapes fit together. 1D shapes behave like lines. There is a beginning point and an end point. You can move an end so that the line "rubberbands" according to the location of the end. Therefore, you would correctly assume that a line in Visio is a 1D shape. 2D shapes behave like boxes. You can stretch, expand, or collapse them by moving their handles. These distinctions relate more to the behavior of the object than to its appearance. In fact, you can use the Format>Behavior menu in Visio to set the Interaction Style of your shape to either Line (1D) or Box (2D). So, even if your object is a box, it can BEHAVE like a line if you set it to 1D. In the world of network shapes, there are differing opinions about 1D vs. 2D. Some developers make all of their network shapes 2D while other make them all 1D. At Visimation, we design them with the following rule of thumb:
There are always exceptions, and this case is no exception (huh?). The advantage of 1D shapes is that their endpoints snap nicely into default "inward" connection points. To snap 2D objects together we must use "2D glue" with inward connections points matched to outward connection points, or inward/outward connection points. 2D glue is less intuitive and sometimes produces unexpected results for the end user which is why we sometimes break our own rules to support a complex assembly problem. For EMCOR Enclosures we produced shapes (that you can download for free here)for a modular system of cabinets, countertops, and accessories. In the Front view shapes we used 2D behavior and glue for attaching adjacent cabinets. However, in the Plan view shapes we used 1D behavior for all pieces because these assemblies often contain one or more angles... quite difficult for an end-user to handle with 2D shapes. 1D shapes are much easier to manipulate at odd angles.   In summary, choosing 1D or 2D behavior comes down to determining the best user experience for a particular assembly problem. For typical rack mounted shapes, 2D works well for cabinets and racks while 1D works best for devices that snap into the racks and cards that snap into the devices. The best way to get a feel for the difference between 1D and 2D in various assemble situations is to try it yourself with the free EMCOR and other shapes on ShapeSource |
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| New shapes , Using Visio | |
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| posted by administrator at 16:53 | |
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