The Pinout shape in Visio is intended to give a visual representation of each "conductor" of a wire or cable. This feature works with the Finish Wire shape in Visio, commonly used on schematic pages.

The pinout reference ID and the page name it is on will be displayed in a callout on the Finish Wire shape, near the "From" or "To" end of the wire shape.

In the example below, the callout is on the "To" end of the wire.

The pinout reference ID is automatically generated but can be modified in the Shape Data window, see below.

You can add more than one link to Pinout shapes on each end of the wire if needed. For example, if a wire has six conductors and four are connected to one device, while the other two are connected to another device.

The Pinout shape displays the pinout reference ID and the pinout name by default.

1/ On a Schematic page, right-click a Finish Wire shape, mouse over D-Tools > Pinout Legends, and you will see three options: Link From Wire Connection to Pinout, Link To Wire Connection to Pinout, and Convert Pinout to Master Shape.

The "From" and "To" correspond to the ends of the Finish Wire shape.

The "From" end of our Wire shapes is intended to be the headend end of the wire.

2/ When you select either the "From" or the "To" options, the following form will open.

Here, you can choose to add the Pinout shape to an existing page or create a new one.

When creating a new page, you are required to choose a "Type": Line, Elevation, Plan, or Schematic. It doesn't matter what you choose if you are planning to keep the page strictly a "pinout legend" page, but if you plan to drop Product shapes on this new page, then you would choose the page type to correspond with the shapes you want for the products.

3/ When you click the Create button, based on your selections, a Pinout shape will be created or linked to the "From" or "To" end of the Wire shape. A new page may be created based on your selections as well.

In the example below, the "New Shape" option was selected with four wires.

You can modify the text that displays on each wire or conductor, the code (default is "A"), and the fill color.

For two of these modifications, you will need to display the Shape Data window in Visio via View > Task Panes > Shape Data.

The Shape Data window for the Pinout shape is shown below.

Here you can change the reference ID, choose whether to display the reference ID on the shape, change or start index, and choose the "step" between the numbers.

For example, if the pinout you are creating has only odd numbers, changing the step to "2" will accomplish this.

You can select individual wires or conductors on the shape by clicking on them. A border will be displayed around the shape, and a border will also be displayed around the selected wire.

To change the color, use the Visio Fill tool.

To change the name or the code, use the Shape Data window for the selected wire or conductor.

Here you can choose whether the text will be displayed in all caps. You can also choose whether a wire is a spacer or not. A spacer will leave a "gap" in the shape of any wire or conductor marked as a spacer.

In the example below, the third wire from the left was marked as a spacer.

You can add wires or conductors to the shape after it is created in a few ways. The first is to select the entire shape by clicking on the name and then right-clicking. You have the option to add or remove wires here.

You can also add wires by mousing over the Pinout shape on either side of a selected wire and seeing a blue arrowhead. When you click this arrowhead, a new wire will be inserted.

New Pinout shapes will always drop in the center of the chosen page. After creating each one, move it to a different location on the page to prevent the shapes from overlapping.

To move the shape, ensure you select the entire shape by clicking on its name (rather than selecting an individual wire, as shown above), then drag it to the desired location.

If an individual wire or conductor is selected, you may accidentally drag it out of the Pinout shape, rather than moving the shape.

If this happens, you can drag the wire or conductor back on top of the shape. Wait until an orange line appears, indicating where the wire or conductor will be inserted, and then release the mouse button.

The wire or conductor will be inserted back into the Pinout shape.

Once you modify a stock Pinout shape to represent a specific pinout, you will want to reuse this Pinout shape on future drawings.

To create a Master shape to reuse, select the Pinout shape, right-click, and choose D-Tools > Pinout Legends > Convert Pinout to Master Shape.

You will be prompted to name the shape. The current name of the shape will be displayed by default; however, you can change it to whatever you prefer.

The shape will be added to a stencil named "Custom Pinout Shapes" that will display in your Stencil Tree under "Custom."

While these custom Pinout shapes can be dragged onto a Visio page, we recommend using the right-click options "Link From Wire Connection to Pinout" and "Link To Wire Connection to Pinout" to add them to your drawings.