Visio is one of my favorite documentation tools. This post will show how to use some of the tricks I’ve learned over the years to create a good looking network diagram.
You’ll notice that I don’t use vendor specific router shapes. They are fine for sales or marketing diagrams. For functional network diagrams, they are pretty useless. I’d rather have a colored box with the hostname and loopback IP inside than have that text outside and cluttering up the diagram. It’s a personal preference, use whatever you want.
Note: Sorry for the lack of details, but I can’t zoom in any closer without giving away any proprietary data on the network.
A snippet of our core diagram looks like this
Instead of using the curved line tool to create the curved links, we use the circle shape tool and split it to connect routers. Additionally, we also have hidden layers that we use to align routers.
To work with layers, click View and then Layer Properties from the file menu.
This layer is called “Drawing Aids” and is only used when modifying the drawing. We don’t want to print it on the plotter, so make sure Print is unchecked.
Now, draw a series of circles with the Ellipse tool from the Drawing toolbar. A tip here is to hold the shift key while sizing the circle to prevent it from turning into an oval. I usually use red for the color because it stands out enough at any zoom level.
After the circles are layed out, we want to put them into the layer. Select one or more circles and then right click. Now, click Format and then Layer. You can select an existing layer, or create a new one here.
Now, we are ready to create an arc that we can use to connect routers aligned along the circle. For this, I usually create a blank document or new tab and draw a circle (holding shift) and then draw straight lines through it like this:
Make sure the circle and all lines are selected with Ctrl-A (if this is a new temp tab or drawing). To split the shape, click Shape, Operations, and Fragment from the file menu.Then move the new fragment away.
To remove the straight lines, we need to use the pencil tool. Select it and then click the corner right on top of the handle. It looks like you are going to move or size the shape, but that’s ok. You should see the corner turn red after clicking. Now, press delete.
Voila! You should have something like the above. To remove the remaining line, click the circle in the middle of the line (it should turn red too) and press delete.
Now, we have an arc that we can use to follow our layouts for market to market connections. The last thing to do is remove the fill, otherwise you will cover up overlapping shapes. In the toolbar, click the fill bucket and select No Fill.
Now, we can copy this and paste it into our drawing. I use these to create circular links between market routers when I want several lines that line up easily. If you want a curve that’s a bit more granular, you can use the pencil tool to draw a straight line and curve it. To keep it straight at first, hold the shift key.
Now that we have a line, we want to click the round point in the middle and drag it outward. This will curve the line.
The nice thing about this is we no longer need the drawing toolbox. If you want to reposition the arc, just do so with the pointer tool. You can also adjust the arc to line it up with your layout circles.
I use the same layer trick for our market detail diagrams. Only, instead of circles, I just use straight lines to line up the routers.
With my layers
The trick to keeping everything in line is to zoom in. I go as close as 200%, occasionally 400%. This allows you to use the arrow keys to move the shapes around a lot more granular than you can at 100%. I also use the Align Shapes button to line up a stack of routers.
For lines that have angles, I typically curve the corners.
Just select your line and right click, then Format and Line. I select the 2nd round corner since it is the smallest curve.
Finally, you should have a legend somewhere on the map. Ours indicates what the different color links are. It also contains our default OSPF cost. Link costs are always on the links, but we use a dark red to indicate any that deviate from the standard costs so they are easy to notice.
