Generate a visio diagram on the fly using .NET.

Question

Is there a good way to create a visio architecture diagram (with a decent layout) if I have a list of client applications, services, and databases? I would think that there would be a good way to generate this on the fly.

Answer 1

GitHub has VisioAutomation . If you have Visio installed, it can automate chart generation. If you can model the chart that you want to use as an oriented chart, then it can automatically compose the chart for you (using MSAGL).

Here is a basic example of creating a directed graph

        using VACONNECT = VisioAutomation.Shapes.Connections;
        var d = new VisioAutomation.Models.DirectedGraph.Drawing();

        var basic_stencil = "basic_u.vss";
        var n0 = d.AddShape("n0", "Node 0", basic_stencil, "Rectangle");
        n0.Size = new VA.Drawing.Size(3, 2);
        var n1 = d.AddShape("n1", "Node 1", basic_stencil, "Rectangle");
        var n2 = d.AddShape("n2", "Node 2", basic_stencil, "Rectangle");
        var n3 = d.AddShape("n3", "Node 3", basic_stencil, "Rectangle");
        var n4 = d.AddShape("n4", "Node 4\nUnconnected", basic_stencil, "Rectangle");

        var c0 = d.AddConnection("c0", n0, n1, "0 -> 1", VACONNECT.ConnectorType.Curved);
        var c1 = d.AddConnection("c1", n1, n2, "1 -> 2", VACONNECT.ConnectorType.RightAngle);
        var c2 = d.AddConnection("c2", n1, n0, "0 -> 1", VACONNECT.ConnectorType.Curved);
        var c3 = d.AddConnection("c3", n0, n2, "0 -> 2", VACONNECT.ConnectorType.Straight);
        var c4 = d.AddConnection("c4", n2, n3, "2 -> 3", VACONNECT.ConnectorType.Curved);
        var c5 = d.AddConnection("c5", n3, n0, "3 -> 0", VACONNECT.ConnectorType.Curved);

:

        var options = new VisioAutomation.Models.DirectedGraph.MsaglLayoutOptions();

        var page = visio_app.ActivePage;
        d.Render(page,options);