Design Stencil Help

Release notes;

The current packages of stencils are not all backwards compatible with Visio 5. They will all work in Visio 2000 or higher. If you have Visio 5 and do not want to upgrade, do not overwrite your existing stencil files with these posted versions.

You do not require the Visio 'Professional' version to use tekmar stencils. The standard version that can be purchased on it's own or within the Office Suite will work with the tekmar stencil files.

General requirements

• The Visio software application (any version from 2000 up) must be functioning on your computer.
• tekmar Stencil files (t500.vss, telec.vss, etc) must be stored on a local drive that is accessible to the Visio application.
• Files must be extracted from the zip containers that they were packaged in on the web site.

Getting the files from the web site into your computer

IMPORTANT If you do not already know where Visio looks for Stencils on your computer, do this first:

• Open the Visio application on your computer.
• If the open dialog asks you to choose a template, select the default template (may be called 'Blank Drawing') and select 'Open'.
• From the 'Tools' pull down menu, select 'Options' and then find and open the 'File Paths' area (Likely a tab within 'Options' window)
• Write down the default path noted for 'Stencils'. example path: 'C:/Program Files/Microsoft Office/Visio/1033/Solutions'

Visio Shape Stencils '.vss' files will be stored inside the 'Solutions' folder in this case.

Downloading Stencils

As an example, while browsing the tekmar web site you see that the general.zip is an updated version that you would like to download.

• Right click on the general.exe and select 'Save to disk' or 'Save target as' from the fly out menu.
• Choose a location to temporarily store the general.exe file (suggest desktop for new computer users)
• Select 'Save'. When the download is complete close any message windows and close or minimize your browser.
• Locate the general.exe file on your desktop and double left click on it to open the WinZip application.
• Click on the 'Browse' button to choose a location for the zip file to extract the file into. (This is where the section on looking for the default file path comes in)
• Save the .vss files in the default location for Visio stencils. When successful there will be .vss files in the default directory (not an .exe file)

Using Stencils

Stencils are like a storage place for commonly used shapes. Shapes can be dragged from stencil files onto blank drawing pages. Each stencil set contains a group of mechanical or electrical shapes.