IBM FileNet P8, Version 5.2.1            

Visio Import wizard

The functionality to import Visio diagrams is available as an extension to Process Designer. See the readme file provided with the IBM® FileNet® Connector for Microsoft Visio package for instructions for enabling this functionality in Process Designer and installing the Visio BPMN template and stencil to work with your Visio application.

If you do not have this access role, you cannot import Visio files. You will not see the Imported Visio File option in the File menu.

Use the procedure below to import a Microsoft Visio diagram into Process Designer, mapping the Visio shapes to Process Designer objects–steps, routes, associations, attachments, data fields, Workflow Groups, and so on.

Use the following steps to import a Visio VDX file

  1. On the Process Designer File menu, select Insert > Imported Visio File. Process Designer File menu, select Insert > Imported Visio File.

    In Visio, save the diagram to be imported in Visio XML drawing (.VDX) format; Process Designer does not import files in .VSD format.

    Visio File Selection

    1. In the Visio File Selection pane, browse to select the file to import.
    2. Under Workflow Processes will be added to the current Workflow Collection, choose one of the following to specify how potential conflicts with existing workflow names will be handled:
      • Edit new Workflow Process names to make them unique - If the current workflow collection already contains a workflow of the same name as one of the imported processes, the option modifies the name of the imported process to make it unique.
      • New Workflow Processes will replace existing Workflow Processes with the same name - If the current workflow collection already contains a workflow of the same name as one of the imported processes, this option replaces the existing process with the imported process.

      TIP If you import into a new (empty) workflow collection, the collection will contain only the imported processes.

    3. For Step and Annotation spacing, specify the number of pixels between steps, and between a step and an annotation.

      Process Designer does not support scaling of the diagram, so you might experiment with adjusting the spacing between the shapes in the imported diagram.  

  2. Page Selection

    You can import any or all of the pages in the Visio document. All pages are selected by default.

    • In the list of Selected Pages, remove any pages that you do not want to import.

    In general, Process Designer treats each imported page as a separate process except for the following conditions:

    • For multiple horizontal or vertical pools on the same page, each pool maps to a separate process in the workflow collection.
    • When there is a pool of the same name on multiple pages, the pool on the first page maps to a process, and the pool of the same name on another page maps to a submap with the page name as the name of the submap.
    • In a multi-page Visio drawing, an Off-page reference shape on one page indicates that the referenced page is a continuation of the first process, not a separate process or submap. In Process Designer, the shapes from both pages of the Visio drawing appear in the same map.  
  3. Mapping Specification

    Use the Mapping Specification panel to define the mapping between the Microsoft Visio shapes and Process Designer objects. If you used shapes in the FileNet-provided BPMN stencil, the imported shapes are mapped to Process Designer objects. Some shapes on other Visio stencils are also mapped to Process Designer objects.

    1. On the Mapping Specification panel, check which mapping file is loaded: the last one you used or the default mapping file.

      To switch to a different mapping file, click Browse and select a custom file. Click Reset to load the default file.

    2. Click Display unmapped shapes only to list all shapes that are not mapped to any Process Designer object. This is the default selection.

      For each unmapped shape, select the desired Process Designer object. (Select Nothing to specify that a shape should not be imported.)

      Click Display all shapes to check how each Visio shape is mapped to a Process Designer object. You can change the mapping for any shape.

      NOTE   Both the Visio shape name and the text value associated with the shape are used for mapping.

      Shape and text

      For example, in a Visio diagram with three circle shapes, all three circles map to an Activity step in Process Designer. If you use different text for the circles, such as Start, <blank>, and End, you could map the circle with Start to the Process Designer Start step, the circle with no text to an Activity step, and the circle with End to the TerminateBranch System step.

    3. If you change the mapping, you can optionally click Save to save the mapping file for use with other Visio diagrams.

      TIP The default location to save the mapping file is on your local computer. If you use different computers or you want to share the mapping file with other users, save the file to a location accessible to all.  

  4. Import Summary
    • Review the summary information. If there are errors, either use the previous page (Mapping Specification) to re-map the Visio shapes to Process Designer objects, or cancel the import and go back to Visio to correct any problems before re-importing the file into Process Designer.


Last updated: March 2016
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