Don't know what to call this.?.?

[avdesign]

Has anyone found a way to export data from a spreadsheet or text file that will map to the custom properties section in the drawing properties dialog box.

Example: I have a series of custom fields located here and are mapped to sections in a title block. I'd like to enter all the data I need to use like name, address, project #, etc and then sync the two together to minimize my data entry.

Any thoughts.

[Norton_cad]

Attribute definitions within your titleblock, can be set to feild values automatically to suit your file. also you can assign attributes to default values, without the hassel of manually editing at each import. I prefer to xref the titleblock, and insert all the titleblock text as a attribute/block in this method.
You could also consider using the Sheet Set Manager (SSM), which has allot of usefull tools, and automatic veiw tags. However there are some glitches in SSM, and caution should be used when allowing other team members editing permissions, as it can easily spiral out of control. You can edit a whole project quite easily with SSM.
Either method should work. Let us know if the advice helps?

To map a data/text file to these values within the common title block, could be done in AutoLisp and/or a script, but that would delete any feild values.

[avdesign]

Yep thats one way it just exactly what I'm looking at. SSM is good but it doesn't,t work for a lot of the projects I and my associates work on. As for the attributes in a block it's already done I have my custom fields referenced to the value in the attribute. I'm looking for a more automatic way either from an excel spreadsheet or a database file that will suck certian info like address, customer name, project # etc. without any typing.

[Tom Beauford]

Right-clicking on a drawing in Explorer and selecting properties gives you access to the custom properties. I would imagine there are many ways to modify them without opening AutoCAD.

[avdesign]

Right-clicking on a drawing in Explorer and selecting properties gives you access to the custom properties. I would imagine there are many ways to modify them without opening AutoCAD.

Yes you are correct, you can do that but it is un-editable when you right click and select properties in explorer. Also only see a portion of the values you have entered in the custom tab. In fact the only area you can edit using this method from Win 95 to XP (I don't use Vista so I can't confirm) is the Summary tab and only when it's in the simple setting.

[irneb]

Another way round is saving DWG Props to a file, then importing into other drawings. I've written a LISP to do this a few years ago. See this thread: http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=84208

[Norton_cad]

Rtext would work with a bit of script. It's sortof like an OLE directly from an excel. I'm not entirly sure if this would suit though. Try Irneb's lisp, and give us some feedback. His lisp's are always awsome.

[bjohnson.202267]

What cad version are you using?

In the AEC products (not sure of vanilla autocad), if you go into the Insert Field dialog box, there is an 'AEC Database' option. In there you can link an external database like excel or access, sql, oracle, etc... to the file an extract a database field as your text entry.

So for most of the vertical cad users (not vanilla flavored), you can link just about anything to your text field in autocad... I would think if you had a database attached that you should be able to do it in vanilla autocad also, but I don't really know that for sure.

The interface is a bit quirky, but once you have attached the database correctly, you can pull fields from the data source, even from multiple sheet excel worksheets and it comes into autocad as field data.

Attach that one time to a common excel file in your drawing template and you will have it available all the time in every session you start from a new file.

It still won't show up in my properties dialog box, but is a true link to excel. If I needed to go back and forth to fill in more fields in excel, I could put a hyperlink on the text field in autocad, and control-click to open excel and edit it, which would update every instance of that same field in my project(s).


So, if the field editor has a database link option... check that out.