LINKING OBJECT DATA TO TABLES

[knickers]

Hi there,

I am new to AutoCAD, but have been using VectorWorks for about 15 years. Overall, I am finding the transition a fairly painless one, with one exception:

Say I am working on a floorplan, and have a number of different polygons to indicate different departments on a plan (Menswear, Womenswear etc). What I would like to do is to link these polygons (specifically data about its area) to a cell in a table, so that when the area changes in size, the area disaplayed in the table is updated automatically (or at the click of a button).

This is a fairly straightforward operation in VectorWorks, but I cannot find any information about how to do it in AutoCAD, although I am sure that it is possible.

Any help would be much appreciated, bearing in mind that I am a complete noob, when it comes to AutoCAD!

Many thanks in advance.

Nick

[Capt. Computer Crasher]

Hi there,

I am new to AutoCAD, but have been using VectorWorks for about 15 years. Overall, I am finding the transition a fairly painless one, with one exception:

Say I am working on a floorplan, and have a number of different polygons to indicate different departments on a plan (Menswear, Womenswear etc). What I would like to do is to link these polygons (specifically data about its area) to a cell in a table, so that when the area changes in size, the area disaplayed in the table is updated automatically (or at the click of a button).

This is a fairly straightforward operation in VectorWorks, but I cannot find any information about how to do it in AutoCAD, although I am sure that it is possible.

Any help would be much appreciated, bearing in mind that I am a complete noob, when it comes to AutoCAD!

Many thanks in advance.

Nick

I do not know what version of AutoCAD you have, but if it is a full version of AutoCAD2008 or higher then, you can use the DATAEXTRACTION command to extract the data from the polygons and link then to the table or an Excel/database or both.

If you do not have a full version of AutoCAD or it is less than AutoCAD2008. you can use fields to manual link the polygons to a table then they will update if you have to change the polygon shapeby the drag command just don't erase the polygon after it's link to the table will be broken and you will have to reconnect the field in the table.

[ronsarlo]

Can I assume that with the dataextraction method, that I cannot delete and redraw the polygon either?

[Capt. Computer Crasher]

Can I assume that with the dataextraction method, that I cannot delete and redraw the polygon either?

with data extraction, you can delete the polygon and redraw just update the data exrtraction after that is if the data extraction is set to the drawing and not select objects. If it is set to select object then you have to edit the data extraction settings and reselect all your polygons.