Free Visio SDK Posted

A new SDK could reduce the learning curve for developers using Visio 2002, Microsoft’s product for creating diagrams and graphical models. (See “Visio 2002: Out of Office” on page 24 of the Aug. 2001 Update.) Like Office applications, Visio provides a set of APIs and the Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) programming environment, which enable developers to create custom applications that exploit the product’s drawing functions and extensive libraries of shapes (e.g., an application for diagramming kitchen layouts and producing a bill of materials). The SDK augments the Visio product documentation with resources for developers who are new to Visio, including sample applications, a database of code samples, and wizards for creating new Visio projects from the Visual Studio 6.0 development environment.

Users must have the full Visio product to run applications created with the SDK; there is no redistributable Visio “run time” or control analogous to the Access run time or the Office Web components. Also, the SDK’s tools do not support the Visual Studio .NET development environment. Developers need Visual Studio 6.0 Service Pack 3 to use the SDK tools and Visio 2002 to run sample applications. Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher is required to browse the SDK documentation.