Linking Excel spreadsheets to Revit?

[sfraney]

Is it possible to link Excel spreadsheets to Revit so they appear as a schedule? I need a special equipment schedule that was done exclusely in excel that needs to be independant of the REvit building model but needs to be placed on a Revit sheet while still having the ability to update the spreadshett from excel. Any ideas if this can be done? I thibk Autocad can do something liek this but am not sure if Revit can do it.

[aaronrumple]

You can link the Excel into an AutoCAD table and then link the DWG into Revit.

I've also printed Excel to PDF and used the Jpeg from PDF to place in Revit. This has to be manually updated.

[sfraney]

Thanks Aaron, i like the excel to dwg, dwg to revit idea. i think i'll try that. I'm not sure if this is a wish list item though.

[sfraney]

I was also thinking about this, if i have an excel spreadsheet with cells that have numbers in them (with no special formulas) is it possible, some how, to have these numbers populate certain Revit shared parameters so they show up in a revit schedule?

This would be a temendous feat if Revit could some how mange to do this.

[Dimitri Harvalias]

Not what I think you are after but, sort of....

this is basically a type catalogue you are describing.

[Steve_Stafford]

Based on the text in AutoCAD 2008's new features docs related to Excel and Word files we may find that we can link these files into dwg's and then into Revit and by virtue of the new updating behavior in Acad 2008/Word/Excel we'd get it in Revit thru dwg. Ironic if so and I haven't been able to test it since it isn't released yet.

[cstanley]

or a much more painful way (which is how i roll) is to create a key schedule, re-enter all the data from the excel spreadsheet, and just not apply any of the key info to a room. like i said, painful to enter the 1st time, but it gives me tons of graphic control on the sheet.
i found importing the image files bogged my project down, oce drivers didn't like to print them very well, and i typically had to print those sheets separately with raster printing enabled, or it would crash the system (or take 3 hours to print my set, whichever came first.)

[Kirk Bricker]

It only takes a few minutes to create a link into Revit from a .DWG file. Copy cells from excel, paste into AutoCAD using the paste special command. Than use the Autocad entities, cuz Revit doesn't know what to do with the weird OLE objects.

AutoCAD 2007 has all sorts of new bells and whistle to alter the excel doc that you pasted. Stretch rows or columns, resize cells, change filled color in cells to name a few.

I than explode the excel paste, so I can change the layers and than alter the look in Revit. Save the Autocad file and it updates in Revit. Done

[MikeJarosz]

I was also thinking about this, if i have an excel spreadsheet with cells that have numbers in them (with no special formulas) is it possible, some how, to have these numbers populate certain Revit shared parameters so they show up in a revit schedule?

This would be a temendous feat if Revit could some how mange to do this.
The answer is yes. I covered this territory in the Revit API forum. See

http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=56954&page=1&pp=10

Follow the whole thread. Essentially, I set the value of a shared parameter programmatically. The rationale for this program was to shade rooms in a project according to how close they come to the program target area. Although Revit can calculate a shared parameter, it cannot use a calculated shared parameter to shade rooms in plan. It needs a constant value to do that. So this program calculates the percentage of the target area that the actual area achieves. It then sets the shared parameter "Percentage" as a constant value. My test data is a 50 story tower and it does over 600 rooms in less than one second.

Note that I started out in this thread using Excel to create a report. I dropped the Excel when I realized that a Revit schedule could do the same thing, once the Percentage parameter was set, and the Excel linkage was veeerrryyy ssslllloooowww. My first run thru took 900+ seconds (that's about 15 minutes!)

Once you get the hang of it, you should be able to place values in any shared parameter. In this example, the shared parameter already existed. I'm not sure if a non-existent shared parameter can be created programmatically.

[dtownsend]

I'm not sure if a non-existent shared parameter can be created programmatically.Yes that can be done.

If you have the Revit SDK (if not download it) - check the FireRating sample.

The ApplyParameter.vb file creates a shared parameter and applies it to all the doors.

[SkiSouth]

Guys - gotta tell ya, this is sounding more and more like another lisp routine route - That's one reason I got out of Acad.

[jeff.95551]

Brickerk's method at least works...mostly. I wish you didn't have to explode the ACAD block to be able to format it. Otherwise the format doesn't work when you bring it into Revit - you get something goofy that you have no control over. You lose the linking ability when you explode it. I don't know why the Revit people are so dead set against this kind of work process. There's no good reason not to be able to link straight into Revit from Excel, Word, or any other similar program.