Rules Tools for Visio

What is Rules Tools for Visio?

Add a user interface to develop diagram validation rules in all editions except the Visio 2010+ desktop defaults

The new validation API allows companies to write validation rules customized for their own purposes.

The Microsoft Visio 2010 Premium edition introduced provides built-in rulesets for flowcharts, BPMN diagrams, and SharePoint Designer workflows. They later became part of Visio Professional and Visio Online Plan 2. However, Microsoft Visio does not provide a ruleset developer interface for analyzing, changing, or creating rules. This Rules Tools add-in fills this gap by providing an extra group on the Process tab in Visio that allows users to analyze existing rules, view issues, and export/import rule sets.

It is true that an image is worth a thousand words, but it is likely that the thousand words understood by each individual are the same if the image was created with the rules generally available. Structured diagramming capabilities and the validation API in Visio 2010+ allow business diagramming rules to be developed, revised, and deployed. The first types of diagramming to which these rules are applied are process flowcharts, remnants of vertical markets attacked by early versions of Visio, but these rules can and will be extended beyond this discipline.

Main benefits

• Review existing rulesets
• Create, update, or delete rules
• Analyze and write down problems
• Export/import rule sets to/from XML
• Standard and developer mode

System Requirements

Rules Tools for Visio was written using Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 as a Visio 2010 add-in using Visual C#. Requires Microsoft .NET Framework 4.

Microsoft .NET Framework 4 Client Profile (x86 and x64)

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Tools for Office Runtime (x86 and x64)

Windows Installer 3.1