Importing Excel into Revit

[DanielleAnderson]

I have an excel spreadsheet that needs to go into my drawing set. I turned it into a jpg and imported it (please tell me if there's a better way) and it came in all fuzzy with some grey around all the letters and numbers. I have noticed that the same thing happens with our company logo on the titleblock.
I only seem to notice this when we send drawings out for printing (in PDF format).

Any ideas on either
a) how to clean it up?
b) a better way of doing things?

Thanks!

[Tom Dorner]

I think we are stuck with the JPEG method for now.

My method is to print the Excel file to a PDF using Acrobat Professional, then in Acrobat crop and save to JPEG. This gives a better resolution and makes it look like the intended printed output from Excel.

HTH

Tom

[jarod.tulanowski]

we use a program called spanner and then the spreadsheet is linked in acad (we used this before revit was here) when the acad is linked in revit it looks perfect. see attached for an example of a electrical panel schedule

P.S. the nice thing is that you can update the excel file, and as long as the cad file in revit is linked, it will update also. The only problem is there is not a notify of change in revit similar to Architectural desktop linked into autodesk viz. so I find myself always reloading the cad files before I print just to make sure.

[Steve_Stafford]

we use a program called spanner and then the spreadsheet is linked in acad (we used this before revit was here) when the acad is linked in revit it looks perfect. see attached for an example of a electrical panel schedule.Interesting, I tried linking excel and word doc's into AutoCAD and then Revit a couple years ago now and it didn't work. So you are succeeding through spanner then!

[jarod.tulanowski]

Yea I know that spanner is old school but it still works.

One thing you need to watch out for after linking is that you need to make the view wireframe not hidden line (defaults to hidden line). it previews fine but text will not print (grid work does). after you turn it to wireframe( still looks the same) grid and text prints fine.

P.S. this is just for Excel I dont know about word. word does not behave in acad either

[p.vicini]

Jarod,
may you say me where to find this software??

Thank you,

[Jit]

you can link excel and word in vanilla acad thru "paste Link"

I have been doing this since acad 13 (remember that monster)

The OLE works fine for me.

give it a shot.

[jarod.tulanowski]

the only problem with ole link is it is very unpredictable and you have a good chance of loosing information. (especially word) you only have so much info that can be copied and pasted at the same time. (not an acad bug but a Microsoft bug) also line weights are also unpredictable. Microsoft's fix to this is if you buy our latest software (office 2005) this will fix the problem. We have the software, but still a pain in the butt to control.

As for the spanner software here is a link
http://www.wfcadtools.com/span40.htm

hope this info helps everyone.

[Shaun v Rooyen]

We just copy from exel and "paste special" as autocad entities. If you have 2005 it puts it in a nice little table for you. We then import into revit, either linked or we explode. The point I am trying to make is it can be done through acad!

[DanielleAnderson]

You know, I hadn't thought about using Autocad (guess I've been in Revit too long)--I will give that a shot since that's how I used to do schedules and things in the old days (i.e. 2 years ago). ;)

The problem I am having with the conversion from pdf to jpg is that it gets all grainy when imported into revit, I could play with it in photoshop for a while, but that seems like a real waste of time.

Thanks.

[DanielleAnderson]

We just copy from exel and "paste special" as autocad entities. If you have 2005 it puts it in a nice little table for you. We then import into revit, either linked or we explode. The point I am trying to make is it can be done through acad!

I am resurrecting this thread because I have tried the above quoted method, and I have tried using an OLE link and I can get the autocad to import into revit but I get all kinds of error messages and nothing shows up. It says something about proxygraphics and wants me to explode the drawing, which obviously I can't do...
Anybody want to clarify? Do I really need a 3rd party software to make this work?

Thanks! :?:

[jarod.tulanowski]

we use the third party software spanner because we already owned it because of the same issues you are talking about. This was a cheap fix to the problem. I guess this problem has been fixed in the latest excel build (the problem is from Microsoft excel and not acad). If you have excel 2000 or earlier you will have problems.

hope this helps

[Danny Polkinhorn]

I have tried using an OLE link ...After copying the cells in Excel to the clipboard, go to AutoCAD's Edit menu and select "Paste Special". A dialog box will pop up asking you how you want to paste it, choose "AutoCAD entities" and this will create an AutoCAD table object of the excel cells without any of the formatting.

Jarod's suggestion of spanner will give you text entities that will have similar formatting to the excel file.

HTH,

[dhurtubise]

If you got AutoCAD 2006, copy - paste special
It will bring your excel stuff already formatted in a table. Then simply link as a detail view and you're all set

[Wagurto]

It would be too much trouble or it would too much to ask Revit to be able to import excel files?
why do we need to work around with other programs like acad? Revit scheduling is great but nothing compare to the flexibility and capabilities of excel.
that's my opinion

[DanielleAnderson]

Okay--I think I know what the problem is. For SOME UNKOWN reason to me, our office is still back in the dark-ages with Autocad 2000. So perhaps OLE and paste special just didn't have quite the same power back then that they seem to have now.
(And I agree, it would be fabulous if Revit could import Excel files directly)

[jarod.tulanowski]

LOL yep 2000 did not have the new tables that acad 2005 has. so spanner is a valid option if you do not want to upgrade your acad

[sbrown]

I personally would hate to see revit allow importing of xcel, I know the flexibility is there and people are good at it, but what will happen is people won't use the built in revit scheduling, because they are familiar with xcel, then changes will need to be made and the xcel file will be wrong and need coordination.

[Wagurto]

Unfortunately Revit scheduling is not able to do the kind of schedules I need. It would be able to do electrical panel schedule or a complex zoning calculation with pre-established database of info. and many other functions. Yes, it is nice to have a program that can give all the coordination you need but Revit is not yet.

[DanielleAnderson]

I personally would hate to see revit allow importing of xcel, I know the flexibility is there and people are good at it, but what will happen is people won't use the built in revit scheduling, because they are familiar with xcel, then changes will need to be made and the xcel file will be wrong and need coordination.

Yes, point well taken, and I was thinking of that very thing when I started this thread. In the short-term though, I needed this spreadsheet (that someone else had done outside of revit) imported onto a sheet and it just got me thinking...gee...wouldn't it be nice...Long term though, I think we need more flexibility on how schedules work in Revit so that different working-styles can be better accommodated (i.e. the reason for this spreadsheet debate with me is that I couldn't get the finish schedule in Revit to configure the way the PA wanted it to look).

[Steve_Stafford]

Unfortunately Revit scheduling is not able to do the kind of schedules I need.Open ended statement...such as? I am aware of the limitations of schedules but when someone says that it can't etc...sometimes it has more to do with formatting or being unwilling to accept data using a slightly different approach. If you and the rest of us hope to see more improvements in schedules we, you really owe it to ouselves to make sure we explain what we mean we say it can't do something...

As for excel, the data I can see being imported into a Revit schedule "directly" is instance based parameters. Type based data comes from objects not the project. Allowing an Excel field to change a type parameter of a door for example might be undesireable? At least in some cases...perhaps okay for others?

[Jit]

DONT Know if this Helps

but the way I sometimes do it is I paste Excel Data into acad as "Acad Entities" and then link it to Revit. So far it has worked for me how ever a bit laborious since if Excel changes , I have to redo the whole process again.

[iru69]

I personally would hate to see revit allow importing of xcel, I know the flexibility is there and people are good at it, but what will happen is people won't use the built in revit scheduling, because they are familiar with xcel, then changes will need to be made and the xcel file will be wrong and need coordination.
I respectfully disagree with this attitude. It's all about choice. If you don't want to use a linked excel spreadsheet, for whatever reason, that's your business. If people feel that they have good reason to use Excel instead of Revit for scheduling, that's their business.

There have been a ton of good reasons outlined in various threads as to why it is often necessary and valuable to be able to link a spreadsheet - often along the lines that the data has *already* been entered into a spreadsheet. Just one example - I receive a spreadsheet from a consultant and want to link it into my drawing set - period - no messing around with parameters or formatting. If the consultant sends me a revised spreadsheet, I want to replace the original file with the revised file and have the link automatically updated in Revit and be done with it.

It doesn't make much sense to me either to create a door schedule in Excel in order to import it into Revit - but that's generally not why people want to link Excel spreadsheets to Revit documents. For those of you who want to become experts on database implementation, be my guest, but it's not your right to drag the rest of us down with you.

[ita]

Scott, perhaps if Revit schedules were as easy to compile and format as excel, that concern would not be there. Schedules are great, but there is room for improvment.

[Scott D Davis]

I receive a spreadsheet from a consultant and want to link it into my drawing set - period - no messing around with parameters or formatting. If the consultant sends me a revised spreadsheet, I want to replace the original file with the revised file and have the link automatically updated in Revit and be done with it..
If you are taking preformatted data, and not doing a thing to it except re-displaying it, why not ask your consultant to send an image file? Import the image to a drafting view, and place it on a sheet. That way it displays as they intended, and you don't have to do anything more than place an image on a sheet.

[iru69]

If you are taking preformatted data, and not doing a thing to it except re-displaying it, why not ask your consultant to send an image file? Import the image to a drafting view, and place it on a sheet.
No, no, no... thats a work-around that's been discussed many times before. It's impractical to ask of consultants, requires more steps, is inflexible, makes things more complicated... I want Revit to make my life easier.

Bottom line is that there is no sensible reason why Revit shouldn't eventually have the capability of linking spreadsheet files, word processing files, pdfs, etc. directly into Revit. Is it personally my number one Revit wish? No. Do I expect the developers to have it implemented in the next release? No. But I would hope it's on their to-do list. And I understand why it's frustrating for those users who want the capability now. Trying to suggest alternatives until those features are implemented can be helpful in the right context. Trying to rationalize those features away only breeds frustration and contempt.

[Gadget Man]

If you are taking preformatted data, and not doing a thing to it except re-displaying it, why not ask your consultant to send an image file?

And why should he? :shock: It is NOT HIS problem - he supplies me with the data in the widely accepted industry standard ("Excel"), so why should he waste any time converting it to much inferior and primitive representation ("picture" of the spreadsheet)?

As I said it before (HERE (http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=20164)), I would be ashamed to ask him for it... What would he think about my professionalism..?



And as Irusun said:

... It's all about choice. If you don't want to use a linked excel spreadsheet, for whatever reason, that's your business. If people feel that they have good reason to use Excel instead of Revit for scheduling, that's their business.

There have been a ton of good reasons outlined in various threads as to why it is often necessary and valuable to be able to link a spreadsheet - often along the lines that the data has *already* been entered into a spreadsheet. Just one example - I receive a spreadsheet from a consultant and want to link it into my drawing set - period ...
I think it hits the nail in the head! :beer:

[Steve_Stafford]

Why would you need to ask your consultant to provide you with an image? Just do it yourself? None the wiser...at least there is no risk of a typo ;-) (now don't beat me up, I'm all in favor of importing data from Word and Excel...just willing to explore alternatives till it is possible)

[Scott D Davis]

Is the 'picture' of the spreadsheet conveying the data in exactly the same way that the 'actual' spreadsheet would? is this data doing anything but just sitting there, displaying itself? Is it really inferior or primative? Doesn't it convey the exact same information, in the exact same formatting? How is it really 'inflexible'? Static data in an Excel sheet is the same as static data in an image of the same sheet. You are simply taking their info and putting it on a sheet, why does it matter what format it's in? My consultants do Title 24 calcuations in some proprietary program. They send an image of the data, we paste it on a sheet. The data changes, they make a new image, we paste it on a sheet.

My office has standardized on the not-so-industry standard Word Perfect. Should Revit someday allow the direct link of an MS Word document, well I would be out of luck. I'd probably have to make an image of my Word Perfect document and paste it into Revit, which really wouldn't matter because it would look EXACTLY like the Word equivalent.

What if we could link in DWF files? it's coming in the near future, and the DWF writer can 'print' from any application including Excel. If the data in the Excel spreadsheet is doing absolutely nothing in the Revit project other than displaying itself, then I have a hard time understanding why Excel must be able to link in.

On the other hand, if the Excel document can link in, and the Data in the Excel can actually do something in my Revit model like add to calculations, or control parameters, then Yes! I can see the need and the advantages.

What would you do if your consultant did NOT use Excel, rather some other spreadsheet program. How would you ask him to send it? He would have to put it through some kind of conversion, right? But you said it's not his problem....so you should just accept whatever he sends you, and now you have to deal with it. No, it doesn't work that way. You set the file format, and the consultant must deliver in the format you choose. If you choose to get JPG images of spreadsheets, then your consultant should deliver JPGs. It IS his problem to figure out how to get the data into the format you ask for.

It's not impracticle to ask a consultant to send a file in another format. You could demand a DWG file from a Microstation user, but you'd be ashamed to ask for an alternative format from an Excel user? Doesn't make sense.
Look, in the end, I'd like to see Excel (and other formats) linking too. I'm playing Devil's Advocate in this case. At this time I think Revit has more important items to work on, and in your case an image of the data would be a fitting alternative.

[Gadget Man]

... I'm playing Devil's Advocate in this case...
Yes, I think you are...:wink:

And YES, I am sure that Factory has much more important issues to solve, but this topic keeps on bouncing back, doesn't it? It simply wouldn't go away... so maybe this issue is significant after all? At least to some of us out there (mind you, THIS time I didn't start it, I just took my turn in stirring up a bit...)

[Arnel Aguel]

If you are taking preformatted data, and not doing a thing to it except re-displaying it, why not ask your consultant to send an image file? Import the image to a drafting view, and place it on a sheet. That way it displays as they intended, and you don't have to do anything more than place an image on a sheet.

Scott the problem with an image file say for excel it will come out fuzzy and with some grey backgrounds around the letters it wont be as sharp as a native excel file. You can get away with it by linking to AutoCAD and pasting as special entities but the formatting is gone you have to reformat the whole bloody thing and really a waste of time.

I just did a structural schedule of beams, columns and slabs reinforcements from excel file and and the only way i can incorporate it to my Revit sheets is by using jpg file. I have to live with the fuzzy jpg file for now.

[sbrown]

Believe me I do understand the desire to link in excell and would expect you to get your wish sometime. However here is my real world example. Interiors currently creates all there finish material schedules in excell, we are teaching revit and using it on a project. Our revit team creates a finish tag and schedule that matches the one in excell line by line and if a number is changed or finish added or deleted it stays current. Did this functionality get used, NO, why because "we do it in excell". So I watched the team try to figure out how to get excell into autocad, then into revit, all to print a schedule that was close to unreadable because the formating loss between excell and autocad/ lineweight issues... it was just a mess, they spent more time trying to make that work then it would have taken to teach how to use the schedules in revit. Programing is the same way, there are huge benefits to be gained from using revit for your programing, but thats not the way people are used to doing it. So as soon as revit gives the ability to link, there will be no incentive for me to motivate people to switch.

I would hope revits schedules just keep improving and you / we ask or demonstrate our needs in the schedules so revit can address them. In my discussions with the developers, they are so open and willing to give us the best solution as long as we can clearly define our end goal, not the solution. Thats their passion and job. So maybe we could post some excell spreadsheets and let the team look at them and see what makes sense. For stuff from consultants, that is a truely needed and reasonable request to allow linking. So I guess after all is said, I am in agreement with the need to link for consultant reasons.

[DanielleAnderson]

Scott the problem with an image file say for excel it will come out fuzzy and with some grey backgrounds around the letters it wont be as sharp as a native excel file. You can get away with it by linking to AutoCAD and pasting as special entities but the formatting is gone you have to reformat the whole bloody thing and really a waste of time.

I just did a structural schedule of beams, columns and slabs reinforcements from excel file and and the only way i can incorporate it to my Revit sheets is by using jpg file. I have to live with the fuzzy jpg file for now.

Yes! This is why I started this thread in the first place! I had exactly this problem, so much so, that in the client's comments regarding our DD submission, they mention the fact that our schedule is: "too fuzzy"...now how embarrassing is that when a client comes back with that kind of comment?
I also agree that revit schedules should be used where applicable, but as irusun said, people need the choice. :) Thanks for all the great suggestions and discussion, by the way, i have really enjoyed reading it.

[Rols]

This is completely rediculous!
We're not trying to replace Revit's schedules. We're trying to link in other documents we use in our office. We typically do our code reviews in either Word or Excel and then paste them into our title sheets. Not to mention the excellent point of consultant files! This is a pretty easy procedure in Acad, and now I have to inform my users/new Revit converts that's it's effectively impossible to do in Revit???
Why can't Revit pull it's head out of the sand and allow OLE's like the rest of the Windows world??

Sorry for all the angst, but I've just been getting my butt kicked this morning over what should be simple little procedures that are still impossible in Revit. I've been preaching the Revit gospel for 3 years now, but I'm just having a week moment.

[aaronrumple]

You're absolutely right. Revit should support typical MS Office documents - especially since adsk and msft have a special technology sharing agreement. However that doesn't take care of our immediate needs and everything right now is really a work-a-round.

My technique has been to create a Jpeg of the document I need to insert and then link the image in. It does mean that I have to delete and update the image if changes are made, but at least I don't have formatting issues from one application to another. I make a PDF and then export that PDF as jpg and have good control of size and resolution.

[LRaiz]

Why can't Revit pull it's head out of the sand and allow OLE's like the rest of the Windows world??



You're absolutely right. Revit should support typical MS Office documents - especially since adsk and msft have a special technology sharing agreement.
I think one needs to be careful with broad statements. There is a danger that your vendor will take these statements and implement them literally and you may not like the side effects of implementation. For example OLE has inherent problems. I heard very many horror stories about linked OLE documents printing very purely or not at all. Would not it be better if your vendor takes responsibility to understand an underlying end-user need and comes up with an appropriate solution? For example in case of Excel it may be better to dynamically read the data from Excel but use Revit own mechanisms to format and display it. I am not in the position to judge if that would address user needs but I am certain that this approach could sidestep printing problems.

[hand471037]

Why can't Revit pull it's head out of the sand and allow OLE's like the rest of the Windows world??

You show me ONE SINGLE EXAMPLE where it works OTHER THAN within MS Office and I'll buy you a beer.

OLE is AutoCAD is completely useless. OLE within OpenOffice barely works at all.

Why not just allow linking in of DWFs and PDFs? Then you could publish out any document you want too, from any OS or program, and link that into Revit.

For example, I don't use MS Office, I use OpenOffice. I do this because it does everything I need and I can't afford to spend hundreds on an office suite (full of stuff I don't use). Also, I have the full Adobe CS suite, which rocks, but I have it for the Mac, for it's where we use it most. Also, what about publishing those nice Green Building Studios web reports and linking them into Revit? That would sure be nice. Also sometimes I do stuff in Linux, or would like to have a database publish out a report that would be included within Revit. OLE solves none of these issues, and I can't be the only Revit user facing them.

I've always thought that Revit should put the 'reports' view back in, but instead of having it be a somewhat-broken cost estimation (Revit used to do that), have it simply be a kind of Drafting View where you can point it at a DWF or PDF & then place it onto your sheets like a Legend...

[aaronrumple]

I think one needs to be careful with broad statements. There is a danger that your vendor will take these statements and implement them literally and you may not like the side effects of implementation. For example OLE has inherent problems..I didn't mention OLE. I just said support. Don't care how it is done. Although I have my opinion given that Office is going XML.

I work a lot with Corel and I'm always amazed at how easy it i to get just about anything in this little $400 package and maintain document fidelity.

(...and as Jeff mentioned, it sure wouldn't hurt if other formats were supported. It would make Autodesk look like a mature, confident software company instead of one struggling to carve out territory with closed standards.)

[Rols]

My technique has been to create a Jpeg of the document I need to insert and then link the image in. It does mean that I have to delete and update the image if changes are made, but at least I don't have formatting issues from one application to another. I make a PDF and then export that PDF as jpg and have good control of size and resolution.
Yes Aaron, this is what I have to do now and it does work. However, it's still a workaround and it's still tough to sell it to my new Revit users who are expecting things to be easier with Revit, not harder.


I think one needs to be careful with broad statements. There is a danger that your vendor will take these statements and implement them literally and you may not like the side effects of implementation.
My apologies, Leonid. I realize that one must consider all the possible ramifications before blindly subscribing to a Windows "standard" which is indeed unreliable in many applications (it does work in Acad, though just not well). I just need to drive home the point that there needs to be a concerted effort to allow Revit to work with the other tools we commonly use in our office (Word, Excel, Adobe PDF, etc...).

I really don't know what the ultimate solution is. Would you export from Word and Excel to a PDF or DWF and then import into Revit? Would you develop the text editor so that one could copy/paste documents directly into the text editor? I would think that one shouldn't have to use Acad as a go between, nor should I have to scan a jpeg. Heck, I guess at this point, I wouldn't even need a dynamic link, though it would be cool.

[DanielleAnderson]

Why not just allow linking in of DWFs and PDFs? Then you could publish out any document you want too, from any OS or program, and link that into Revit.



Being able to insert a PDF would make me happy--AND--getting back to the original purpose of this thread, just a whole lot more formatting options for scheduling so that I can get a schedule that looks something like the one I attached a few messages previously.
Aaron, is your process for the whole PDF conversion to print a PDF from Excel, bring it into Photoshop and then change it to a JPG? I have found that when doing it that way it prints out clearly in-house on 11x17, but when I send it out for plotting, it comes back fuzzy and gray.

[aaronrumple]

Aaron, is your process for the whole PDF conversion to print a PDF from Excel, bring it into Photoshop and then change it to a JPG? I have found that when doing it that way it prints out clearly in-house on 11x17, but when I send it out for plotting, it comes back fuzzy and gray.
No. Adobe Acrobat has a save as option where Jpeg is one of the file types. There are options for the quality level to avoid down sampling. I know that once imported I can get it to look exactly the same by just making the jpg the same size as the Acrobat sheet.

[Prodev75]

Both Ms Word and Excel can export to HTML. What are the chances of Revit importing HTML files? Revit can interpret the lines within a schedule as tables. Can that work back wards? You would think it could.
Awww come on... Who in the factory has their hand on the HTML Import button? :)

HTML, Asp, AspX using a little ADO

Ooo that's scary

[Galadriel]

has anyone found a better way of importing from excel to revit?

[Steve_Stafford]

This thread is roughly seven years young. There are several free and paid applications that provide a way to import data from excel into Revit now. CTC Revit to Excel Link and IDEATE BIM Link are two examples. They assume you want to import data into Revit schedules. They can not alter Revit's calculated parameters but for data only they work well.

There are also ways to do things natively in Revit that we might reach for Excel to do but don't really have to anymore. It just depends on what is in Excel...

[Galadriel]

Thanks steve, i have never tried to import from excel into revit and saw this thread.
the engineer has already created a schedule in excel so we didn't want to recreate work.

[Steve_Stafford]

If it is just data then the tools I mentioned will work. If you are looking for the "appearance" of the worksheet (like capturing an image of it) there is another tool that will take an Excel worksheet (DotSoft I think) and create a DXF file that can be imported into Revit.