RealPic shapes are very similar to generic D-Tools elevation shapes; however they are specific to individual models because they display an actual front-view image of the product.
RealPic shapes have the following features, which make them more useful than just a simple image:
RealPic shapes are distributed in special stencils that must be downloaded separately. There is one stencil for each manufacturer - for example, Crestron, AMX, or Control4. However, before these shapes can be used in drawings, users must download the product data for the specific models that have realpic shapes.
RealPic shapes are only available for certain products that have high-quality front-view images available, and that are of interest on elevation drawings. Generally, this includes equipment that is mounted in an equipment rack, such as amplifiers, mixers and control systems, or things like speakers and touchpanels.
To get the data for those products that currently have RealPic shapes available, follow these steps*:
*If you have already downloaded the product data for these products, you can skip this step
Once you have the product data, you are ready to download the stencil. To do this:
Once you have downloaded both the data and the stencil, you are ready to use the shapes.
To add a Realpic shape to a drawing, you have two options. This will depend on whether the product is already in your project, or if you want to add it to the project
If you have already the product in your project, simply drag the product from the Project Editor on to an Elevation View drawing in Visio. SIX will automatically recognize that the Realpic shape exists, and drop the shape on the drawing page.
If you wish to add the product to your project:
*If you do not see the correct model number in the Add Product dialog, this means that you do not have the product data in your database yet. See step 1 above to get the data.
Once the shape is in the drawing, you can customize it's appearance in one of two ways: either through the right-click menu, or through the shape properties
Right click on the shape to add text labels, or show/hide feet and rack ears:
Right-click and go to Data > Shape Data... to open the shape data. From here you can make changes to the following:
Realpic shapes are only available for certain models and certain manufacturers, since they require that a good quality, front-perspective image is available for the product in question. Additionally, only certain types of products are interesting to display on an elevation page. For example, wires and wall plates are not useful, whereas amplifiers, receivers, and control systems are.
For this reason, Realpics are currently available for 10-25 models for select MVP partners only. At the moment, Realpics are available for the following partners:
New stencils are added every month, so keep an eye on Data News in the download browser, or check Download Stencils from D-Tools Server to see which new stencils have been added. Whenever a new stencil has been added, you can get the list of models by downloading the corresponding CSV file attached below.