Creating Schedules in AutoCad

[daniel.191403]

Hey Guys,

I sincerely don’t know where this notion is coming from, “you sound as if you want ADesk to do all this for you with no extra cost”

This is so out of left field to me that I actually not sure how to respond to it. Am I missing something here?

Are you trying to say you guys sell stuff like this, if someone would pay you to do make it? I’m so confused by your accusations that that’s the best conjecture I can come up with!!

The only mention of money issues I raised is when I noted that I did contact JTWorld and asked if this is something they could create. They said probably if they had the money.

Well, I just figured that after giving them the idea they could certainly profit from it if they saw the opportunity and left it up to them to decide. I would certainly purchase it from them if it worked well enough.

Maybe there is a world out there which I am unfamiliar with and you guys are a part of which barters with such aftermarket ideas….

Is there something you guys want to share here about that?? Past this line of thinking I really don’t grasp your point.

Autodesk continually improves their software through R&D which includes User Wish Lists and User input and they factor these ‘extra cost’ efforts into the cost of their products and subscription services. Duh!

d.
ps. on another subject, how do you capture quotes and place them in your reply posts in those blue boxes as you have?? Can't figure that one out.

[jaberwok]

on another subject, how do you capture quotes and place them in your reply posts in those blue boxes as you have?? Can't figure that one out.

I'd say "click the QUOTE button" but you probably wouldn't listen.

[daniel.191403]

I'd say "click the QUOTE button" but you probably wouldn't listen.

Jaberwok -- were the hellava been!?! I've missed your industry specific input! hehehehe.
And don't you worry I always listen, and more carefully then some would wish!

Thanks. d.

[daniel.191403]

Opie – I thought I would take a moment to write you again outside of the hubbala that has become my Thread.

Perhaps you can help me with something I’ve noticed here in the AUGI forum, given that you are a moderator.

There appears to be a disposition of some to speak from a bias or framework which leads them into a sort of presumptions of fact or demonstrates a tendency towards conjecture within an attempt to speak on behalf of Autodesk rather then from ones own more limited and therefore most certainly accurate knowledge or perspective.

I am wondering if this kind of writen voice comes from a kind of AUGI cultural indoctrination having evolved from the many wars of working within the gravitational pull of Autodesk or if this is perhaps a culture collision arising from the varied types of folks who share in the Autodesk experience and also span such a broad range of industries?

Either way it appears to me that folks enter a conversation with layers of ‘story’ behind their replies making it difficult to track the inner depth of their words -- and yet it is undeniable that there is indeed an inner depth held within their replies – but who do not upfront offer up a disclaimer or clarification of both their intent and story filled backgrounds in order to provide some insight as to the podium in which they speak from.

‘Different strokes for different folks’ seems to be running through it all and yet we share the same space and so within our differences there must also be recognition of our similarities. No?

All of this seems to generate a kind of ‘positionality’ bias rather then a more rational sharing which then steers the conversation into areas which are much more idiosyncratic rather then focused on the subject at hand.

I think it may be helpful if there was a sort of ‘positionality disclaimer’ announcement requirement mandated for folks who choose to pipe in on a thread. Something like: What industry, what software, what hope, what pain, what belief, what care, what intention situates your response to a thread? At least this would offer some transparent insight to whom the speaker is on the front end of the conversation instead of setting off a tone of ‘this or that’ which generates all kinds of turbulence that then needs to get chased down through long winded diatribes just like this one!!

Any thoughts?

d.

[daniel.191403]

IRNEB-- Have you seen this?

http://www.xanadu.cz/en/excellink.asp#2109

EXCELLINK 2010 (V18 upd 7/2009) is an ARX application for AutoCAD 2010, 32-/64-bit (plus Map 3D 2010, Mechanical 2010, Architecture 2010 ...). It allows to bidirectionaly hot-link attribute and block data between an AutoCAD drawing and an Excel 2000/XP/2003/2007 sheet.

Might deal with your bi-directionality issues...?

d.

[irneb]

Yep ... their VBA version does exactly what my older Access VBA code did. Also allowed for read & write. But as I've mentioned ... it was horribly slow.

Will give their ARX a try, seeing as it's "free but limited". If it's any good then I'd like to use that.

BTW, ACad has something like my ODBC idea (the other way round): http://forums.augi.com/forumdisplay.php?f=338
Basically it can link objects inside a drawing to an ODBC database and Synchronize the values within. Unfortunately it only displays the data in text (not a tag block's attributes). Maybe it would be easier to simply revisit this "very old and nearly forgotten" function of AC.

Edit: Just tried the ARX version for 2008. Not too bad, it's down to a one click operation for import (a bit more for export). Trying this on a copy of one floor level on a current project (72 doors on this level) it takes about 20sec to generate the XLS & about the same to import the changes back into the DWG. You can actually see how it "fills-in" the spreadsheet. Sounds very close to the same speed I got using Access & VBA ... only then I was working on a much larger project (this one's a hotel, the previous was a multi-use conglomerate building with doors ranging from 200 to 900 per level).

To show the difference in speed using my LISP to save & load to & from a CSV file ... the same drawing (with 72 doors) takes 5 sec to save the room tags, window tags & door tags with one click (there's 53 rooms & 22 windows). And excel takes no time whatsoever to update the tables from these CSV files ... what I'd like to do for mine is to directly place into an XLS (like Xanadu does) except not using VBA (or as they do ActiveX) because this is going to be discontinued and I think this is where the time issue comes in.

[SRBalliet]

Man, you guys like to type!

[daniel.191403]

I suppose then its quite fair to say, "you like to read!!" Hope you enjoyed our little tug of war.

[daniel.191403]

Yep ... their VBA version does exactly what my older Access VBA code did. Also allowed for read & write. But as I've mentioned ... it was horribly slow.

Will give their ARX a try, seeing as it's "free but limited". If it's any good then I'd like to use that.

BTW, ACad has something like my ODBC idea (the other way round): http://forums.augi.com/forumdisplay.php?f=338
Basically it can link objects inside a drawing to an ODBC database and Synchronize the values within. Unfortunately it only displays the data in text (not a tag block's attributes). Maybe it would be easier to simply revisit this "very old and nearly forgotten" function of AC.

Edit: Just tried the ARX version for 2008. Not too bad, it's down to a one click operation for import (a bit more for export). Trying this on a copy of one floor level on a current project (72 doors on this level) it takes about 20sec to generate the XLS & about the same to import the changes back into the DWG. You can actually see how it "fills-in" the spreadsheet. Sounds very close to the same speed I got using Access & VBA ... only then I was working on a much larger project (this one's a hotel, the previous was a multi-use conglomerate building with doors ranging from 200 to 900 per level).

To show the difference in speed using my LISP to save & load to & from a CSV file ... the same drawing (with 72 doors) takes 5 sec to save the room tags, window tags & door tags with one click (there's 53 rooms & 22 windows). And excel takes no time whatsoever to update the tables from these CSV files ... what I'd like to do for mine is to directly place into an XLS (like Xanadu does) except not using VBA (or as they do ActiveX) because this is going to be discontinued and I think this is where the time issue comes in.

Wonder if 2010 is even better for this area of functionality?? Seems that you've discovered some improvements in 2008 despite the impression that the evil empire that is Autodesk doesn't listen.

[irneb]

Wonder if 2010 is even better for this area of functionality?? Seems that you've discovered some improvements in 2008 despite the impression that the evil empire that is Autodesk doesn't listen.

Not exactly, the stuff I was referring to is a very old tool which is still available in ACad (once you "turn it on"). There's been absolutely no development of this for several years, instead ADesk seems to have abandoned it in favour of DE.