export layer information in Visio

Question

Is it possible to export Layer information to excel or someother form from a Visio diagram.

I would ideally like to the objects text, and the layer(s) it is on.

Answer 1

In VBA, insert a UserForm (you can then delete it if you want to) because it will add a reference the DataObject.

(I'm too lazy to work out which library you need).

Copy and past the sub function below ...

You will end up with text in your clipboard that can be pasted into Excel into rows and columns.

Public Sub ListShapesOnLayers()

Dim pag As Visio.Page

Dim sel As Visio.Selection

Dim shp As Visio.Shape

Dim dataObj As DataObject

Dim text As String

Dim lyr As Visio.Layer

    text = "Page" & vbTab & "Layer" & _

         vbTab & "ID" & vbTab & "Name" & _

                        vbTab & "Text"

    For Each pag In ActiveDocument.Pages

        If pag.Type = visTypeForeground Then

            'Debug.Print pag.Name

            For Each lyr In pag.Layers

                'Debug.Print , lyr.Name

                Set sel = pag.CreateSelection(visSelTypeByLayer, 0, lyr)

                If sel.Count > 0 Then

                    For Each shp In sel

                        If Len(shp.Characters.text) > 0 Then

                            text = text & vbCrLf & pag.Name & vbTab & lyr.Name & _

                                vbTab & shp.ID & vbTab & shp.Name & _

                                vbTab & shp.Characters.text

                        End If

                    Next

                End If

            Next lyr

        End If

    Next

    Set dataObj = New DataObject

    dataObj.Clear

    dataObj.SetText text

    dataObj.PutInClipboard

    MsgBox "Paste the text into Excel or somewhere", vbInformation

End Sub

Answer 2

I should also remind you that shapes in Visio do not have to be on a lyer, and they can be assigned to multiple layers. Therefore, it is possible that the same shape is reported on more than one layer in the code above.