EXCEL Drawing register using Autocad Title Block Attributes

[simon_coupland]

Hi,

I have recently taken on the task of doing some major house-keeping and tiding up of our drawing database and associated project folders.

I was wondering if there was any way at all of creating a Drawing Register for each Project using Excel and populating this spreadsheet with the information from the attributes in the Title Block i.e.: Drawing No., Drawing Title, Date Drawn, Revision No., Revision Description.

If this is at all possible, would the information in the spreadsheet be automatically updated when the drawing attributes are updated?

I am using AutoCAD Electrical 2010.

Any Assistance Would Be Greatly Appreciated

Many Thanks

Regards

Simon

[RobertB]

Have you looked at the Sheet Set Manager? This allows you to create a sheet index as an AutoCAD table which you could then export to Excel, although if you are using SSM, Excel is just wasted time and effort.

[jhill1]

Hello Simon-

The only command I can think of is "DATAEXTRACTION". I think you can batch the process to run through a list of files, possibly folders also. Once the process completes, I think the information can be linked, between the excel and cad files. However, I worry that the consistency of the information may leave you with a bunch of **** in Excel. An alternative, time consuming as it is, to change your title block attributes from text to fields linked to an outside database (excel file). You could go a step further, populating custom file properties on the dwg file, with this same information (would require an add-in or programming) then you could use windows desktop or google desktop search, to read the values of those custom properties---extra "feature".

Jamie Hill

[irneb]

The DataExtract doesn't "automatically" update the excel file. You'll need to run the extract again, however you don't need to set it up again as the settings are saved in a DXE file.

But, , it "automatically" updates a table inside a DWG file ... which you can export to excel if you wish. If you open the DWG containing the table a pop-up note is displayed if there was a change in one (or more) of the source DWG's, allowing you to click the update (similar to what happens with xrefs being updated by someone else).

Both the SSM and DWGProps idea would be a lot of work since each of your existing DWG's need to be fielded to these (maybe even redefining your TB's). It might be possible to script it using some advanced lisp, but that's probably not the simplest thing to do. If you do decide to go this route, I'd suggest SSM instead as it's a lot more flexible & comprehensive than DWG Props, not to mention SSM works on multiple DWG's at once - DWGProps only work on one DWG at a time. Also there's an automatic drawing list feature in SSM, not so in DWGProps.

In any event, I'd highly recommend going the SSM route from now on. Simply so your new projects don't give you the same headaches.

[jhill1]

Hello again-

I just read a new blogpost made by Jimmy at JTBWorld. The concept, isn't exactly as you'd like, but I think close enough, that it is wort reading.

http://blog.jtbworld.com/2010/05/pro...roperties.html

Jamie Hill

[simon_coupland]

Hi All,

Many Thanks for all the replys, i really appreciate all your feedback.

One other question, Is it at all possible to of turning the CAT attribute of multiple Blocks to invisible across multiple drawings within a project without opening each Block Symbol individually?

I am using AutoCAD Electrical 2010.

Any Assistance Would Be Greatly Appreciated

Many Thanks

Regards

Simon

[irneb]

Not without scripting. In which case you should modify the block in one DWG, then WBlock it out to a new DWG. Then insert & redefine from that through the script. Then run the AttSync command to update each instance of the block in the drawing (even if there's only one). Then you should have this script run on all the DWGs. If you're not on 64bit, you could use ScriptPro from ADesk to run the SCR file ... otherwise there's some non-free script runners (do a google) or somewhere here there's a thread pointing to something called BatchLisp which might be used as well.

You could "redefine" the block as well as modify each instance in multiple drawings using AutoLisp with ObjectDBX. Unfortunately you can't send commands using ObjectDBX though, so the AttSync can't be used.