Units of Measure

In general, the formulas of cell elements that represent some numeric value (for example, the shape position, a dimension, or an angle) require a number-unit pair that consists of a number and the unit type that is needed to interpret the number. In DatadiagramML, however, even though the unit type information is stored, the value of an element is expressed in whatever the appropriate internal units are for that value. An internal unit is the unit of measure used by Microsoft Office Visio to represent a particular type of value and is the value Visio writes to DatadiagramML files.

For example, values representing units that are a measurement of length are expressed as floating-point numbers in inches, because the inch is the internal unit used by Visio to represent length. Therefore, if an element has a value of "2 feet", its Unit attribute is 'FT' for "feet" and its value is the number 24.

Other units, such as date/time, are expressed as formatted strings. In the case of date/time, the unit is a string, such as "2004-12-20T23:00:00".

If a unit of measure is explicitly set, and if it is different from the default unit for the cell, Microsoft Office Visio writes out the Unit attribute in DatadiagramML files. If no Unit attribute is present in an element that represents a cell, Visio will use the default unit for that element.

For more information about how units of measure work in Visio, see About units of measure in the Microsoft Office Visio ShapeSheet Reference.

The following tables describe valid units of measure and provide information about internal units and how they are expressed in a DatadiagramML file.

The values of these unit types are expressed as floating-point values in inches (internal units). Therefore, a value of "2 feet" would be expressed as:

<Width Unit='FT'>24</Width>

A value of "12 points" would be expressed as:

<Size>0.16666666666667</Size>

Note Units of measure that represent an area (acre and hectare) are expressed in square inches.

Unit	Description
AC	Acre
C	Ciceros
C_D	Ciceros/didots
CM	Centimeters
D	Didots
DL	Default length units
DP	Default page units, as specified in the Current page box on the Units tab of the Options dialog box (Tools menu)
DT	Default type units, as specified in the Text box on the Units tab of the Options dialog box (Tools menu)
F_I	Feet/inches
FT	Feet
HA	Hectare
IN	Inches
IN_F	Inches— fractional
KM	Kilometers
M	Meters
MI	Miles
MI_F	Miles— fractional
MM	Millimeters
NM	Nautical miles
P	Picas
PT	Points
P_PT	Picas/points
YD	Yards

Angle values are expressed as floating-point values in radians (internal units).

Therefore, 180 fractional degrees appears as the following:

<Angle Unit='DEG'>3.1415926535898</Angle>

Unit	Description
AD	Degrees
AM	Minutes
AS	Seconds
DA	Default angle units, as specified in the Angle box on the Units tab of the Options dialog box (Tools menu)
DEG	Fractional degrees
RAD	Radians

Values of this unit type are expressed as floating-point values in elapsed days. (Days are the internal units for time). For example, the C element below contains the elapsed days between the dates stored in the A and B elements.

<A Unit='DATE' F='Date(1969,9,12)'>1969-09-12T00:00:00</A>
<B Unit='DATE' F='Date(1969,9,13)'>1969-09-13T00:00:00</B>
<C Unit='ED' F='Scratch.B1-Scratch.A1'>1</C>

Unit	Description
DE	Default duration units, as specified in the Duration box on the Units tab of the Options dialog box (Tools menu)
ED	Elapsed days
EH	Elapsed hours
EM	Elapsed minutes
ES	Elapsed seconds
EW	Elapsed weeks

Values of this unit type are expressed as string values written out in the ISO 8601 format:

yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm[:ss[.ss]]

Notes

The uppercase letter "T" is a required delimiter between the date portion and the time portion.
The date portion must be complete: a four-digit year, a dash, a two-digit month, a dash, and a two-digit day.
The time portion must include a two-digit hour (based on a 24-hour clock), a colon, and a two-digit minute. The time can optionally include another colon and two-digit seconds. After the optional seconds, there can be a dot, followed by digits representing fractional seconds. Fractional seconds can be as precise as nanoseconds.

For example:

<A Unit='DATE'>2004-09-12T12:34:12.0543</A>

Unit	Description
DATE	Date and time

Values of these unit types are expressed as strings. The following table provides an example of each unit type.

Unit	Description	Example
BOOL	Boolean	An integer that can be 0 (FALSE) or 1 (TRUE). For example: `<A Unit='BOOL'>1</A>`
COLOR	A color value	A color value is specified by its red, green, and blue (RGB) components or its index within the document color table. The value can appear as a hash (#) followed by a 6-digit hexadecimal number, or as an integer value between 0 and 23. These integer values are the same as those displayed in the Visio user interface, for example in the Color list in the Fill dialog box (Format menu). For example, the color green would appear as follows: `<A Unit='COLOR'>#00FF00</A>` A color at index 3 of the ColorEntry element would appear as follows: `<A Unit='COLOR'>3</A>`
CY	Currency	<A Unit='CY'>####.####xxx</A> where ####.#### is the amount and xxx is the ISO 4217 currency symbol. For example, $234.45 in U.S. dollars would appear as follows: `<A Unit='CY'>234.4500USD</A>`
GUID	A globally unique identifier	A string that represents a globally unique identifier (GUID). For example: `<A Unit='GUID'>{4A1A0046-7A0D-4395-99CA-9939AD2D567E}</A>`
MULTIDIM	Multidimensional value	<A Unit='MULTIDIM'>### unit^pow</A> where ### is a floating-point value, unit is one of the floating-point units of measure (area, angle, distance, duration, or typographical) as previously described, and pow is a power. For example, 12 cubic feet would appear as: `<A Unit='MULTIDIM'>1728 IN^3</A>`
NUM	Number	Expressed as a floating-point value.
NURBS	NURBS curve data	Expressed in the same format as a formula with a NURBS (nonuniform rational B-spline) function: NURBS(knotLast, degree, xType, yType, x1, y1, knot1, weight1, ...) For example, `<E Unit='NURBS'>NURBS(2.3,2,0,0,0.6,-1.1,0,1)</E>`
PER	Percent	Expressed as a floating-point value between 0 and 1. For example, 50% would appear as: `<A Unit='PER'>0.5</A>`
PNT	2-D coordinate	<A Unit='PNT'>PNT(x unit, y unit )</A> where x and y are floating-point values and unit is one of the floating-point units of measure (area, angle, distance, duration, or typographical) described earlier. For example, `<A Unit='PNT'>PNT(2,3)</A>`
POLYLINE	Polyline point data	Expressed in the same format as a formula with a POLYLINE function: POLYLINE(xType, yType, x1, y1...) For example, `<E Unit='POLYLINE'>POLYLINE(0,0,0,1)</E>`
STR	String	<A Unit='STR'>some string</A> where some string is a PCDATA string.