BoundingBox Method [Visio 2003 SDK Documentation]

Returns a rectangle that tightly encloses a shape, or the shapes of a page, master, or selection.

object**.BoundingBox**flags, left, bottom, right, top

object     Required. An expression that returns the Page, Master, Shape, or Selection object whose bounding box is to be retrieved.

flags     Required Integer. Flags that influence the bounding box calculated for each shape that contributes to the resulting bounding box.

left     Required Double. Returns the x-coordinate of the left edge of the bounding box.

bottom     Required Double. Returns the y-coordinate of the bottom edge of the bounding box.

right     Required Double. Returns the x-coordinate of the right edge of the bounding box.

top     Required Double. Returns the y-coordinate of the top edge of the bounding box.

Version added

4.5

Remarks

For a Shape object, the BoundingBox method returns a rectangle that tightly encloses the shape and its subshapes.

For a Page, Master, or Selection object, the BoundingBox method returns a rectangle that tightly encloses the page's, master's, or selection's shapes and their subshapes.

If the BoundingBox method returns an error, or if it is asked to return the rectangle enclosing zero shapes, the rectangle returned is { left: 0, bottom: 0, right: -1, top: -1 }; otherwise, the rectangle returned has left less than or equal to (<=) right, and bottom less than or equal to (<=) top. The numbers returned are in internal units (inches).

The bounding rectangle returned for an individual shape depends on its Type property.

The method will raise an exception for object type visTypeDoc.

The flags argument has several bits that control the bounding box retrieved for each shape. If more than one of the bits described in the following table is set, the rectangle determined for the shape covers all rectangles implied by the bits.

The extents rectangle is determined using the center of the shape's strokes; it does not take into account the width of the strokes. Nor does the rectangle include any area covered by shadows or line end markers. Microsoft Office Visio does not expose a means to determine a shape's "black bits" box, that is, the extents box adjusted to account for stroke widths, shadows, and line ends.

A shape may have control points or connection points that lie outside any of the bounding rectangles reported by the shape. You can determine the position of control points and connection points by querying results of the shape's cells.

Example

The following procedure prints the dimensions of the bounding box of the selected shape in the Immediate window. If more than one shape is selected in the active window, a message box indicating an error is displayed. In all cases, results are reported in the drawing units of the page or master to which the shape belongs. This means that if the shape is a subshape of a group, visBBoxDrawingCoords is passed as a flag to the BoundingBox method.

If the shape is a guide, the procedure passes visBBoxIncludeGuides to the BoundingBox method so that the shape will be considered to have extent. Three rectangles are reported for the shape:

• visBBoxUprightWH: an upright box that encloses the shape's width-height box
• visBBoxUprightText: an upright box that encloses the shape's text box
• visBBoxExtents: an upright box that encloses the shape's paths

To run this macro, make sure exactly one shape is selected on the Visio drawing page.

Public Sub BoundingBox_Example() 

    Dim vsoSelection As Visio.Selection 
    Set vsoSelection = ActiveWindow.Selection 
    vsoSelection.IterationMode = visSelModeSkipSub   

    If vsoSelection.Count <> 1 Then 
        MsgBox "BoundingBox_Example() expects exactly one selected shape." 

    Else

        Dim vsoShape As Visio.Shape 
        Set vsoShape = vsoSelection(1) 
        Dim intFlags As Integer 
        intFlags = 0
 
        If vsoShape.ContainingShape.Type = visTypeGroup Then

            intFlags = visBBoxDrawingCoords 

        End If

        If vsoShape.Type = visTypeGuide Then 

            intFlags = intFlags + visBBoxIncludeGuides

        End If 

        Dim dblTop As Double
        Dim dblBottom As Double
        Dim dblLeft As Double
        Dim dblRight As Double 

        vsoShape.BoundingBox intFlags + visBBoxUprightWH, dblLeft, dblBottom, dblRight, dblTop 
        Debug.Print "Upright WH   "; _ 
        "dblLeft:" & Application.FormatResult(dblLeft, "in", "", "#0.00 u"); _ 
        "dblBottom:" & Application.FormatResult(dblBottom, "in", "", "#0.00 u"); _ 
        "dblRight:" & Application.FormatResult(dblRight, "in", "", "#0.00 u"); _ 
        "dblTop:" & Application.FormatResult(dblTop, "in", "", "#0.00 u") 

        vsoShape.BoundingBox intFlags + visBBoxUprightText, dblLeft, dblBottom, dblRight, dblTop 
        Debug.Print "Upright text "; _ 
        "dblLeft:" & Application.FormatResult(dblLeft, "in", "", "#0.00 u"); _ 
        "dblBottom:" & Application.FormatResult(dblBottom, "in", "", "#0.00 u"); _ 
        "dblRight:" & Application.FormatResult(dblRight, "in", "", "#0.00 u"); _ 
        "dblTop:" & Application.FormatResult(dblTop, "in", "", "#0.00 u") 

        vsoShape.BoundingBox intFlags + visBBoxExtents, dblLeft, dblBottom, dblRight, dblTop 
        Debug.Print "Bounding Box "; _ 
        "dblLeft:" & Application.FormatResult(dblLeft, "in", "", "#0.00 u"); _ 
        "dblBottom:" & Application.FormatResult(dblBottom, "in", "", "#0.00 u"); _ 
        "dblRight:" & Application.FormatResult(dblRight, "in", "", "#0.00 u"); _ 
        "dblTop:" & Application.FormatResult(dblTop, "in", "", "#0.00 u")
 
  End If  

End Sub  

    

The following macro uses the BoundingBox method and the ShapesOverlap() function to determine if one shape (vsoShape2) overlaps another (vsoShape1).

Public Sub OverlappingShapes_Example()

    Dim vsoShape1 As Visio.Shape
    Dim vsoShape2 As Visio.Shape
    Dim blsIsOverlapping As Boolean

    
    Set vsoShape1 = Application.ActiveWindow.Page.Drop(Application.Documents.Item("BASIC_U.VSS").Masters.ItemU("Square"), 3, 9)
    
    Set vsoShape2 = Application.ActiveWindow.Page.Drop(Application.Documents.Item("BASIC_U.VSS").Masters.ItemU("Pentagon"), 3, 8)
    
    blsIsOverlapping = ShapesOverlap(vsoShape2, vsoShape1)
    
    If blsIsOverlapping Then
        Debug.Print "Shapes overlap."
    Else
        Debug.Print "Shapes do not overlap."
    End If

End Sub


Private Function ShapesOverlap(vsoShape1 As IVShape, vsoShape2 As IVShape) As Boolean
 
    Dim dblLeft1 As Double
    Dim dblLeft2 As Double
    Dim dblBottom1 As Double
    Dim dblBottom2 As Double
    Dim dblRight1 As Double
    Dim dblRight2 As Double
    Dim dblTop1 As Double
    Dim dblTop2 As Double
 
    vsoShape1.BoundingBox Flags + visBBoxExtents, dblLeft1, dblBottom1, dblRight1, dblTop1
    vsoShape2.BoundingBox Flags + visBBoxExtents, dblLeft2, dblBottom2, dblRight2, dblTop2
 
    If ((dblLeft2 >= dblLeft1 And dblLeft2 <= dblRight1) Or _
        (dblRight2 >= dblLeft1 And dblRight2 <= dblRight1)) And _
        ((dblTop2 >= dblBottom1 And dblTop2 <= dblTop1) Or _
        (dblBottom2 >= dblBottom1 And dblBottom2 <= dblTop1)) Then
        ShapesOverlap = True
    Else
        ShapesOverlap = False
    End If
 
End Function

Applies to | Master object | Page object | Selection object | Shape object

See Also | AreaIU property | HitTest method | LengthIU Property