Documentation

Getting Started

Getting Started

A step-by-step walk-through from download to first diagram.

Requirements

  • Microsoft Visio: Plan 1, Plan 2, or any of the Visio 2019 / 2021 / 2024 desktop editions. Visio for the Web is not supported (it cannot render custom .vssx stencils).
  • Windows or macOS: the stencil is OOXML so it loads cleanly on either.
  • ~20 MB of disk space for the full set in one unit system.

1. Pick your units

Visio-Cisco ships in two identical sets that differ only in measurement units. Choose one before downloading:

  • Metric (_m, the Stencil-Metric/ folder): if your Visio drawings use centimetres / millimetres.
  • US (_u, the Stencil-US/ folder): if they use inches / feet.

Not sure? Design → Page Setup → Measurement units in Visio. Full explanation →

2. Download

A single zip of every stencil: all 11 groups, the all-icons stencil, and the drawing-resources companion, for your unit system:

Just the all-icons stencil

One file, every icon:

A specific group

If you only design for one part of the Cisco portfolio, grab just that group stencil from the Stencil-Metric/ or Stencil-US/ folder. The 11 groups available are:

Group Masters Metric US
Attribute 27 Cisco_Attribute_V-1_m.vssx Cisco_Attribute_V-1_u.vssx
Data Centre 21 Cisco_Data Centre_V-1_m.vssx Cisco_Data Centre_V-1_u.vssx
Endpoint 62 Cisco_Endpoint_V-1_m.vssx Cisco_Endpoint_V-1_u.vssx
General 7 Cisco_General_V-1_m.vssx Cisco_General_V-1_u.vssx
Management 16 Cisco_Management_V-1_m.vssx Cisco_Management_V-1_u.vssx
Routing 3 Cisco_Routing_V-1_m.vssx Cisco_Routing_V-1_u.vssx
SD-Access 210 Cisco_SD-Access_V-1_m.vssx Cisco_SD-Access_V-1_u.vssx
SD-WAN 13 Cisco_SD-WAN_V-1_m.vssx Cisco_SD-WAN_V-1_u.vssx
Security 101 Cisco_Security_V-1_m.vssx Cisco_Security_V-1_u.vssx
Switching 12 Cisco_Switching_V-1_m.vssx Cisco_Switching_V-1_u.vssx
Wireless 14 Cisco_Wireless_V-1_m.vssx Cisco_Wireless_V-1_u.vssx
All Icons 486 Cisco_All-Icons_V-1_m.vssx Cisco_All-Icons_V-1_u.vssx
Drawing Resources (shared) Cisco_Drawing-Resources_V-1.vssx Cisco_Drawing-Resources_V-1.vssx

The drawing-resources companion (Cisco_Drawing-Resources_V-1.vssx) is in both folders.

Note: the “Data Centre” group name contains a space; browsers encode it as %20 in raw download links. The filenames on disk use the literal space.

Asset files (SVG and PNG)

The per-icon SVG and PNG files are free and in the public repo:

  • SVG/ folder: 486 .svg files, including -DM variants.
  • PNG/ folder: 486 .png renders at 20 mm icon size at 300 DPI, aspect preserved, DPI-tagged so they insert at the correct physical size.
  • Visio-Cisco-Assets-V1.zip: both folders in one download.

The stencil engineering is GPL-3.0. The artwork is copyright Cisco Systems, Inc., published by Cisco for free use in network topologies; attribution to Cisco is appreciated when redistributing.

3. Install

Two options. The first is faster; the second persists across drawings.

Open on demand

Double-click any .vssx. Visio opens it in the Shapes panel on the left for the current drawing only.

Add to your My Shapes folder

Drop the .vssx into your Visio My Shapes directory:

Windows: %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Shapes

macOS: ~/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/User Content/My Shapes

Restart Visio. The stencil now appears under More Shapes → My Shapes, available in every drawing.

4. Drop your first icon

  1. In Visio, open your drawing (or File → New → Blank Drawing).
  2. Open the Visio-Cisco stencil if it isn’t already in your Shapes panel.
  3. Drag any icon onto the canvas.
  4. Hover near an edge of the icon: one of the nine connection points (the small blue ×) becomes active.
  5. Draw a connector from that anchor to another icon’s anchor. The connector glues to the exact point, not the icon’s bounding box.

5. Search for icons

Type any device or technology name into the search box at the top of the Shapes panel. Try anycast gateway, border node, stealthwatch, access point. The Enabling search page covers the search contract, why keyword stuffing is deliberately avoided, and what to do if your Visio’s shape search needs to be turned on first.

6. Dark backgrounds

Designing on a dark theme or onto dark-filled shapes? The 31 near-black logos each ship a white -DM twin. Search for the icon name plus -DM (e.g. Stealthwatch -DM) to find it.

7. Populate network metadata

Right-click any dropped icon and open Shape Data. The seven fields (Hostname, ManagementIP, Model, SerialNumber, Site, Role, VlanIds) are ready to populate by hand or via script from a Catalyst Center, NetBox, IPAM, or CMDB export.

Next steps

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