When the tail is open, there is a little tab that sticks out and covers up the edge of the process box. The arrow head “flanges” are superfluous, and could be outside of the box, so to speak.Īnother problem comes when the arrow is lined up with the edge of the process box. And since the arrow-thickness is of primary importance in a Sankey diagram, it would make sense to have the body of the arrow exactly match the height of the shape. The alignment box (green handles) however, doesn’t match the body of the shape. This makes the outputs look better, as they blend nicely with the process box. Here we can see the Block and Arrow shapes at work in an oversimplified visual of an oil-combustion process:Ī nice feature of the arrow, is that you can right-click the shape, and choose to have an open- or closed tail. Visio’s Block Diagram Template and Blocks stencil have shapes that you can use to create Sankey diagrams. While there are no Sankey Diagrams templates that ship with Visio, there are a few in-the-box shapes that can be used to create rudimentary Sankeys. If you work in any kind of industry in which material- or energy flow is important, or are working on environmental issues, then you’ll surely want to pull a Sankey diagram out of your hat at that next departmental meeting! Can Visio do Sankey? You’ll see hundreds of colorful examples that will make you want to start diagramming right away! MSN’s Live Search offered these at the top of the result list:

You can see many samples of Sankey diagrams by image-searching for “Sankey Diagram” on Google or MSN.

In this article, we’ll explore the creation of Sankey diagrams using Visio, and we’ll offer our own free Visio Sankey diagramming shapes for your downloading and diagramming pleasure! Sankey graphics are easily read and quickly comprehended. The thicker the arrow, the more flow of energy, mass, or volume. A Sankey diagram is an interesting visualization that uses the thickness of arrows to depict the flow-volumes in a system.

Microsoft visio wireframe template