Data tool and Excel

[rrijswijk104343]

Hello all,

I am trying to link objects to an Excel file.
It works fine when I do it with MS Access.

However, I would like to have it with Excel...

Do you have any suggestions how to do this?

Renzo

[RobertB]

Excel is not a database, so it just may not be possible. (Please note, I've never used the data tools.)

[johnny.215755]

Hello all,

I am trying to link objects to an Excel file.
It works fine when I do it with MS Access.

However, I would like to have it with Excel...

Do you have any suggestions how to do this?

Renzo

Sorry I cannot help you, but perhaps you can tell me how you link from Access ...

[dgorsman]

Excel is not a database, so it just may not be possible. (Please note, I've never used the data tools.)

Having spent yesterday afternoon attempting to do so, I can say with some certainty you can't. In theory, the ODBC driver can take the sheet name or a named range as a table but it just wasn't working. I am looking at linking the Excel sheet through a MS Access database as a linked table. Aside from a couple of data type and de-composed string (don't ask) issues, that seems to work.

Edit: one thing to note, is that it cannot work with the Excel file if somebody else has it open or it is otherwise in a read-only state.

[thomas183523]

Renzo,

Excel great for many things but the one big thing it is frequently used as that it really is not suited to do is act as a database. I can fully appreciate the ease of use and the widespread nature of the app but it is a real pain having to deal with masses of data embedded in spreadsheets.
You are much better off exporting your stuff into Access, MySQL, etc if you want to effectively use it as a data source.

[andy.thelwell]

On the subject of DataTools, we're currently doing some research into upgrading this feature and we're therefore looking for users who are using DataTools to answer a few questions and provide some feedback.

Anyone using DataTools and interested in participating, please drop me a PM or email.

Thanks,

Andy

[Dan Elkins]

Dgorsman, would you be willing to post the following information for how you got it to work through access? Did you use the "Driver do Microsoft acces" or the "Microsoft Access Driver"? Did you do anything under setup beside select the mdb file? What text did you use for the SQL String, for me i tried SELECT * FROM Pipes WHERE "Handle" = %prop("Entity Handle", "Value"); but no luck.

I wish the navisworks help was more useful!

Thanks

[ian.205287]

On the subject of DataTools, we're currently doing some research into upgrading this feature and we're therefore looking for users who are using DataTools to answer a few questions and provide some feedback.

Anyone using DataTools and interested in participating, please drop me a PM or email.

Thanks,

Andy

Andy, I would like to talk to you about picking up your links in Artra. Can we go back to talking directly on this and bypass the obstacles in the way since the take over?

[rrijswijk104343]

For everyone!

Read this Blog!

http://revittoday.blogspot.com/2009/...datatools.html

It works!

[Dan Elkins]

I was able to get excel links working with the above posted tutorial but not an access link. The help menu is not very helpful, does anyone know any other links or tutorials to aid with this portion of navis?

Thanks