Bug 89469 - LibreOffice support for Visio Stencils (.vss/.vsx/.vssx/.vssm).
Summary: LibreOffice support for Visio Stencils (.vss/.vsx/.vssx/.vssm).
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Draw (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
unspecified
Hardware: All All
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords: filter:visio
: 104147 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks: Gallery ImpressDraw-Enhancements Visio
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2015-02-19 12:53 UTC by Maarten Hoes
Modified: 2024-11-12 08:40 UTC (History)
10 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
MS-Visio Stencil and Template (2.22 MB, application/x-zip-compressed)
2015-02-19 12:53 UTC, Maarten Hoes
Details
Screenshot of Visio Stencil opened in Visio 2013 (103.28 KB, image/png)
2015-02-19 13:21 UTC, Maarten Hoes
Details
Screenshot Visio Stencil opened in LibreOffice (61.64 KB, image/png)
2015-02-19 13:21 UTC, Maarten Hoes
Details
MSDN Blog Article on Visio File Formats (98.71 KB, text/html)
2015-02-19 13:22 UTC, Maarten Hoes
Details

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Description Maarten Hoes 2015-02-19 12:53:36 UTC
Created attachment 113496 [details]
MS-Visio Stencil and Template

Currently, LibreOffice only has support for Visio Drawing (.vsd/.vdx) files. It would be nice if there was also support for Visio Stencils (.vss/.vsx) and Templates (.vst/vtx).

When you open a stencil in MS-Visio, you get a blank file onto which you can drag and drop all of the shapes that are included in the stencil. The shapes that are included in the file are displayed in a separate panel. When you open up one of these in LibreOffice you do get the blank new file, but not the panel that has the shapes that are included. Similar behavior is occuring for the Visio Template files: Visio opens a blank new Drawing with a seperate panel that shows the Shapes that are included in the file. LibreOffice just shows the blank document.

According to : 

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visio/archive/2006/05/30/608089.aspx

the file formats for Drawings, Stencils and Templates have the same file format, and only the behavior of the application differs based on the filename extension that is used. So you can just rename a Visio Drawing from 'visio.vsd' to 'visio.vss' to get a Stencil, and rename it to 'visio.vst' to get a Template. I have verified this behavior with MS-Visio 2013. 

I have attached a screenshot of a Visio Stencil opened in Visio 2013, versus a screenshot of the same file opened in LibreOffice to show the difference.
Comment 1 Maarten Hoes 2015-02-19 13:21:08 UTC
Created attachment 113497 [details]
Screenshot of Visio Stencil opened in Visio 2013
Comment 2 Maarten Hoes 2015-02-19 13:21:38 UTC
Created attachment 113498 [details]
Screenshot Visio Stencil opened in LibreOffice
Comment 3 Maarten Hoes 2015-02-19 13:22:20 UTC
Created attachment 113499 [details]
MSDN Blog Article on Visio File Formats
Comment 4 V Stuart Foote 2015-02-19 15:07:32 UTC
Sure, why not. 

But can't see this as much of a priority so long as LO continues for the most part correctly filter .vsd/.vdx drawings on opening into Draw using libvisio. Hmm, guess this an enhancement of the libvisio filter?

Some prior discussion here:
http://nabble.documentfoundation.org/additional-symbols-or-alternatively-stencils-in-Draw-templates-tc3331001.html

@Maarten, how would you envision the GUI to implement this, closer to our existing interface is probably more likely to get done.

Imagine shapes and diagram element objects of the Visio stencils/templates could be mapped into the Sidebar, perhaps the ArtWork Gallery content panel--or maybe a new panel for the Deck.

Caolán had done something along those lines with the (limited to Linux) diafilter extension to bring Dia diagrams and objects into Draw--something similar?
Comment 5 V Stuart Foote 2015-02-19 15:17:55 UTC
adding the cognizant devs... Fridrich S. and Valek F. apologies for any excessive noise if this has already been hashed over.
Comment 6 Maarten Hoes 2015-02-19 15:52:24 UTC
(In reply to V Stuart Foote from comment #4)
> 
> @Maarten, how would you envision the GUI to implement this, closer to our
> existing interface is probably more likely to get done.
> 
I have only a slight preference for a panel that displays all the shapes that are included in the stencil/template file: this could be an addition to an existing panel or in a single new panel, whatever works best or is the most convenient to implement is fine by me.
Comment 7 David Tardon 2015-02-19 17:15:38 UTC

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 58425 ***
Comment 8 V Stuart Foote 2016-12-20 20:12:42 UTC
*** Bug 104147 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 9 V Stuart Foote 2016-12-20 20:18:10 UTC
So this is was a valid enhancement, at some point it would be a nice feature to lash-up the libvisio filter with an ability to import to LibreOffice Gallery.

GSOC material?
Comment 10 heidilelrod 2021-09-14 10:20:16 UTC Comment hidden (spam)
Comment 11 Donald Ape 2022-11-15 11:47:00 UTC Comment hidden (spam)
Comment 12 Bartosz 2024-10-24 21:33:23 UTC
The templates support was already added.
The Stensils is not possible to add to Draw, due to limitation of LibreOffice Draw itself.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 163170 ***
Comment 13 Maarten Hoes 2024-10-25 08:40:35 UTC
(In reply to Bartosz from comment #12)
> The Stensils is not possible to add to Draw, due to limitation of
> LibreOffice Draw itself.

This may be true today, but does not necessarily have to be true in the future. In the future, any 'limitation of LibreOffice Draw itself' may be removed, which may allow support for stencils to be added.

Therefore, I would like to keep this bug open, so support for stencils might be added if this changes in the future.
Comment 14 ordomix 2024-11-12 08:40:09 UTC Comment hidden (spam)