Group or Ungroup Shapes

GcExcel allows you to group or ungroup shapes in a worksheet. Shapes can be grouped together when there is a need to perform certain action on the bunch of shapes together. For example: adding similar style to shapes, aligning, rotating, copying or pasting the grouped shapes together. It does not only saves a considerable amount of time and efforts but also helps in ensuring that the desired consistency is maintained in all the shapes.

Group Shapes

Several shapes can be grouped together using the Group method of the IShapeRange interface. The IShapeRange interface represents the range of the shapes which needs to be grouped together. The grouped shapes behave as a single shape.

Refer to the following example code to group shapes.

// Initialize workbook
Workbook workbook = new Workbook();
// Fetch default worksheet 
IWorksheet worksheet = workbook.Worksheets[0];
//Creating shapes collection for activeSheet
IShapes shapes = workbook.ActiveSheet.Shapes;

// Adding Shapes to shapes collection
IShape ShapeBegin = shapes.AddShape(AutoShapeType.Wave, 10, 10, 100, 100);
IShape EndBegin = shapes.AddShape(AutoShapeType.RoundedRectangle, 200, 200, 100, 100);
// Adding Connector Shape to shapes collection
IShape ConnectorShape = shapes.AddConnector(ConnectorType.Straight, 10, 10, 101, 101);

//Connecting ShapeBegin & EndBegin shapes by connector shape
ConnectorShape.ConnectorFormat.BeginConnect(ShapeBegin, 3);
ConnectorShape.ConnectorFormat.EndConnect(EndBegin, 0);

//Adding IsoscelesTriangle shape to shapes collection
shapes.AddShape(AutoShapeType.IsoscelesTriangle, 370.8, 50.8, 81.6, 102.0);

//Creating shpRange collection to group certain shapes as given in array
IShapeRange shpRange = shapes.Range[new string[3] { shapes[0].Name, shapes[1].Name, shapes[2].Name }];

// Grouping Shapes
IShape grouped = shpRange.Group();
// Setting Style for Grouped shape together
grouped.Line.Color.RGB = System.Drawing.Color.DarkOrange;
grouped.Fill.Color.RGB = System.Drawing.Color.LightGreen;
Console.WriteLine("Group Name is: " + grouped.Name);


// Saving workbook to Xlsx
workbook.Save(@"GroupedShapes.xlsx", SaveFileFormat.Xlsx);

Ungroup Shapes

A group of shapes in a specified range can be ungrouped using the Ungroup method of the IShape interface.

Refer to the following example code to ungroup shapes.

// Initialize workbook
Workbook workbook = new Workbook();
// Open workbook
workbook.Open(@"9-GroupedShapes.xlsx");
IShapes shapes = workbook.Worksheets[0].Shapes;

// UnGroup Shapes
for (int i = 0; i < shapes.Count; i++)
{
    if (shapes[i].Type == ShapeType.Group) // Or,  if (shapes[i].Name == "Group 1")
        shapes[i].Ungroup();
}

// Or, we can just pass GroupName to Ungroup it
// shapes["Group 1"].Ungroup();

// Saving workbook to Xlsx
workbook.Save(@"10-UnGroupedShapes.xlsx", SaveFileFormat.Xlsx);