Units of measure

Units of measure

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In general, the formulas of cell elements that represent some numeric value (for example, shape position, a dimension, or an angle) require a number-unit pair that consists of a number and the qualifying units needed to interpret the number. In XML for Visio, however, unit information is stored but the value of an element is always expressed in internal units.

For example, values representing units that are a measurement of length are expressed as floating point numbers in inches (internal units). If an element has a value of "2 feet", its Unit attribute is 'FT' for feet and its value is the number 24.

Other units, such as date/time, are expressed as formatted strings. In the case of date/time, it is a string like "2000-12-20T23:00:00".

If a unit of measure is explicitly set, and is different from the default unit for the cell, Microsoft Visio writes out the Unit attribute in XML for Visio files. If no Unit attribute is present in an element that represents a cell, Visio will use the default unit for that element.

For more information about how units of measure work in Visio, see About units of measure in the Microsoft Visio ShapeSheet Reference.

Values of these unit types are expressed as a floating point value in inches (internal units). Therefore, a value of "2 feet" would be expressed as:

  <Width Unit='FT'>24</Width>

A value of "12 Points" would be expressed as:

  <Size>0.16666666666667</Size>

The following tables describe valid units of measure along with information about internal units and how they are expressed in an XML for Visio file.

Note Units of measure that represent an area (acre and hectare) are expressed in square inches.

Unit	Description
AC	Acre
C	Ciceros
C_D	Ciceros/didots
CM	Centimeters
D	Didots
DL	Default length units
DP	Default page units
DT	Default type units
F_I	Feet/inches
FT	Feet
HA	Hectare
IN	Inches
IN_F	Inches Fractional
KM	Kilometers
M	Meters
MI	Miles
MI_F	Miles Fractional
MM	Millimeters
NM	Nautical Miles
P	Picas
PT	Points
P_PT	Picas/points
YD	Yards

Angle values are expressed as floating point values in radians (internal units).

Therefore, 180 DEG appears as the following:

  <Angle Unit='DEG'>3.1415926535898</Angle>

Unit	Description
AD	Degrees
AM	Minutes
AS	Seconds
DA	Default angle units
DEG	Fractional degrees
RAD	Radians

Values of this unit type are expressed as a floating point value in elapsed days (internal units). For example, the C element below contains the elapsed days between the dates stored in the A and B elements.

  <A Unit='DATE' F='Date(1969,9,12)'>1969-09-12T00:00:00</A>
<B Unit='DATE' F='Date(1969,9,13)'>1969-09-13T00:00:00</B>
<C Unit='ED' F='Scratch.A1-Scratch.B1'>-1</C>

Unit	Description
DE	Default duration units
ED	Elapsed Day
EH	Elapsed Hour
EM	Elapsed Minute
ES	Elapsed Second
EW	Elapsed Week

Values of this unit type are expressed as a string value written out in the ISO 8601 format:

yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm[:ss[.ss]]

The uppercase letter T is a required delimiter between the date portion and the time portion.

The date portion must be complete: four-digit year, a dash, two-digit month, a dash, and a two-digit day.

The time portion must include a two-digit hour, a colon, and a two-digit minute. The time can optionally include another colon and two-digit seconds. After the optional seconds, there can be a dot and followed by digits representing fractional seconds. Fractional seconds can be as precise as nanoseconds.

For example:

  <A Unit='DATE'>2000-09-12T12:34:12.0543</A>

Unit	Description
DATE	Date and time

Values of these unit types are expressed as strings. The following table provides an example of each unit type.

Unit	Description	Example
BOOL	Boolean	An integer that can be 0 or 1. For example: <A Unit='BOOL'>1</A>
COLOR	A color value	A color value is specified by its red, green, and blue components or its index within the document color table. The value can appear as a hash (#) followed by a 6-digit hexadecimal number, or as an int value between 0 and 23. For example, the color green would appear as follows: <A Unit='COLOR'>>#00FF00</A> A color at ColorEntry index 3 would appear as follows: <A Unit='COLOR'>>3</A>
CY	Currency	####.####xxx Where xxx is the ISO currency symbol. For example, $234.45 in US Dollars would appear as follows: <A Unit='CY'>234.4500USD</A>
GUID	A globally unique identifier	A string that represents a globally unique identifier (GUID). For example: <A Unit='GUID'>{4A1A0046-7A0D-4395-99CA-9939AD2D567E}</A>
MULTIDIM	Multi dimensional value	<A>### unit^pow</A> where ### is a floating point value, unit is one of the floating point units of measure (distance, duration, or typographical) as previously described, and pow is a power. For example, 12 cubic feet would appear as: <A Unit='MULTIDIM'>12 FT^3</A>
NUM	Number	Expressed as a floating point value.
NURBS	NURBS curve data	Expressed in the same format as a formula with a NURBS function: NURBS(knotLast, degree, xType, yType, x1, y1, knot1, weight1, ...) For example, <E Unit='NURBS'>NURBS(2.3,2,0,0,0.6,-1.1,0,1)</E>
PER	Percent	Expressed as a floating point value between 0 and 1. For example, 50% would appear as <A>0.5</A>
PNT	2-D coordinate	<A>PNT( xunit, y unit )</A> Where x and y are floating point values and unit is one of the floating point units of measure (distance, duration, or typographical) described earlier. For example, <A Unit='PNT'>PNT(2,3)</A>
POLYLINE	Polyline point data	Expressed in the same format as a formula with a POLYLINE function: POLYLINE(xType, yType, x1, y1...) For example, <E>POLYLINE(0,0,0,1)</E>
STR	String	<A Unit='STR'>some string</A> where some string is a PCDATA string.