Is there any chance to prevent MS Visio (preferably 2010) connectors from routing when a text block is placed on top of it? I want to achieve the effect as if the text block is on the upper layer, above the shapes and connectors, but that the layers are completely separate (not affecting each other's layout).
Is that possible?
Sounds like you need to change connector re-routing. I think the option you want is "Never re-route".
Firstly (if you haven't already) you need the Developer tab. Go to File|Options|Customize Ribbon and turn on"Developer" in the list of tabs.
Now select the shape you want and in Developer|Behaviour go to the Placement tab and select 'Do not layout and route around' in the Placement behaviour drop down. That should do it.
Layering and grouping never seemed to make a difference for me (it still rerouted the connectors anyway), but changing the routing behavior of the placed object did. For Visio 2010 and 2013, the Behavior dialog is unfortunately and unnecessarily hidden by default. You have to customize the ribbon (File > Options > Customize Ribbon or just right-click on the Ribbon > Customize Ribbon), click the check mark next to the Developer item in the right-most tree view to enable it, and click OK. Then select the shape you want to layer before and behind, click Behavior on the ribbon (Developer>Shape Design>Behavior), and on the Placement tab in the Placement behavior drop-down list choose Do not lay out and route around.
Recommend that the “Shape can split connectors” box is un-ticked in the Behaviours tab (of the behaviours dialogue box) so that dropping a shape on a connector does not re-route the connector and possibly shapes as well.
Typically what I do is add meta information like that to its own layer and then group and lock the layer. At that point Visio just thinks its drawing on a blank canvas again and won't attempt to route the connectors anymore.
Cheers! ~Chris
Very helpful comment from @Gibsnag about enabling the Behavior/Placement/Placement Behavior drop-down box. To get to it, open Developer/Behavior:
Visio Ribbon Bar - Developer/Behavior
Then, if the Placement Behavior drop-down is greyed out:
enter image description here
go back to the Behavior tab and select the Box (2-dimnensional)option:
enter image description here
In the Visio Developer menu Behavior dialog, rather than switch the connector Behavior tab Interaction style, you might prefer leaving it as Line (1-dimensional), and then in the Connector tab change Line routing Reroute from Freely to something more restrictive, like Never.
