I often find that I need to fill certain shapes with a regular pattern to indicate their composition. This is especially true of engineering drawings where shapes representing materials of various substances need to be represented differently, but it may also be the case in other types of diagrams that require shapes to take on a different appearance depending on their content. Fortunately, the professional version of Video 2007 you have a plethora of options available to suit these Visio Extras template requirements. This can be accessed from the shape on the Standard toolbar, or from Shapes on the File menu.
To use this feature, you first need the shapes you want to fill with a pattern to be present on the drawing page, and you also need to open the specific template that contains the fill pattern you want to use. There are basically six options here; two custom line pattern templates, two custom pattern templates without any scale applied, and two custom pattern templates to scale, each available in metric or imperial units. The application of scale pattern fills has advantages and disadvantages; if the scale is compatible with your drawing scale, then the result is great, but if it isn’t, you might find an oddly mutating pattern filling your shape, like a third of a herringbone pattern. Strange!
To apply a fill pattern to the shape, simply select the shape you want to fill, then go to the Format menu and click Fill in the dropdown menu. The Fill dialog box opens and from here you can scroll down the list until you can see the additional patterns available. Click the one you want to apply the fill to the shape, and don’t forget that the background color, pattern color, and transparency can also be tweaked to get the effect you want. And, of course, the same options are available for any shadow effect you want to apply (but remember: less is more!)
Tip: You may find it difficult to see the pattern you have chosen in some circumstances; turning off the Grid from the View menu usually makes this easier, but you may also want to increase the page magnification by holding down Shift and Ctrl and clicking the left mouse button. Changing the color of the pattern often helps too.
Patterns can be layered on top of each other, and you can always use the Shape menu’s Operations command to intersect, subtract, or fragment shapes before filling them with custom patterns.