Visio’s Custom Line Ends

One interesting feature of Visio that is not well documented is that you can create your own custom fill patterns, line patterns and line ends. For now, I will review the procedure for creating a semicircular line end. Something like: (—–)

1. Open Drawing Explorer
2. Select New Pattern from Line Ends. Set the name. Set the scaled  option.
3. Select the new master, right click and select Edit Pattern Shape.
4. Place a vertical and a horizontal guide line so they intersect at the center of the page. This will be the end point of the line.
5. Draw a circle, set the fill to none and then drop a vertical line over it’s center.
6. Select the circle and the line and choose Operations –> Trim from  the Shape menu.
7. Deselect everything and then drag a selection box over the left side of  the circle and the vertical line. Delete. This should leave you with the right  side of the circle.
8. Place the center of the circle over the intersection point of the  guidelines.

You will have to play with the sizing, but this should give you a  semicircle line end and the line will end in the end of the circle. If you apply  it to the start of the line, begin, it will be a “(” and it will be a “)” at the  end. The assumption is that you want the line end at the end of the line placing  it at the beginning will reverse it.

John Marshall… Visio MVP       Visio.MVPs.org